


Falling before the Knight

by EvilSlicey



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Batman - All Media Types, Green Arrow (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Bisexual Bruce Wayne, Bisexual Oliver Queen, Heartbreak, M/M, Relationship Negotiation, Young Love, teenage drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-11 23:03:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 25,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16861726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilSlicey/pseuds/EvilSlicey
Summary: Oliver Queen has pushed his parent one time to many and winds up being sent away to attend Gotham Academy.Oliver didn't expect that this would lead to him falling in love.Characters are roughly based on the Arrow's version of Oliver Queen and a mix of various cannon's Batman.





	1. Falling before the Knight

**Author's Note:**

> I considering making this a fully chaptered piece, but didn't make sense to break up the story.

                Oliver fiddled with the annoying blue and grey plaid tie of his Gotham Academy uniform. He sighed as no matter what he did it was still an ugly leash around his neck. Off to his side he heard a chuckle and turned to see Laurel Lance finally exit her dorm building.

                “No matter what you do Ollie, its still going to be a tie.” She reprimanded him as she fixed his tie to make it lie flat against his chest.

                “I still hate it.” Ollie grumbled and examined his friend, jealous slightly by the more comfortable looking scarf tie and knee length skirt. The trousers he was wearing were beginning to feel itchy already. The one thing he was happy about was he didn’t need to wear the awful plaid sweater vest. If he had had to wear that to class everyday, he would have emptied his bank account and ran away to China before Moira Queen could finish enrolling him for this Sophomore year.

                “Oh, come on Ollie, you look nice.” Tommy Merlyn, Oliver’s best friend slapped him on the back and moved to wrap his arm around Laurel Lance. Oliver frowned seeing that Tommy had opted for the Sweater vest and no jacket, looking like he was trying to land the front page of the recruitment brochure. Oliver knew his shirt was wrinkled and untucked which his jacket barely covered, and his shoes were already scuffed. He only looked nice because he was nice-looking in general, not because of the clothing he had pulled straight from the bottom of suit case that morning. It was his own little protest to the events.

                “But,” Oliver thought, as he groaned and shouldered his backpack to head towards the main building of the school “They have no need to protest. They chose to be here.” Oliver, on the other hand, hadn't had a choice.

                After a year of barely passing his classes, getting in trouble at school and only having 3 teachers say anything good about him (His archery instructor, his martial arts instructor and the political science teacher) Oliver ‘Bad Decisions’ Queen had finally found the straw that broke the camels back.  Setting a potential business partner of his father’s car on fire during a charity benefit.

                In his defense how was he supposed to know the chemicals he and Tommy spilled on the hood of the car would catch on fire. Laurel had pointed out that if he had paid attention in intro to Chemistry that year, he would have known they were highly reactive.

                Whatever the reason his mother had decided his bad behavior was to much of an embarrassment and decided that he needed to be sent away. Sent across the country, to a private school in one of the most dangerous cities in the country. She had stated she hoped a new environment might teach him how to be a responsible citizen. It was only his own finagling that had gotten Tommy and Laurel in the school with him. Tommy had gotten his father to enroll him with a little research on the school’s curriculum and Ollie had sent the school a scholarship application with one of Laurel’s favorite papers from political science and a recommend form his parents and Mr. Merlyn. Completely forged of course but still they worked.

                Both of his best friends had gotten in and enrolled into classes without his mother realizing it until it was too late. So now he at least got to go to classes with people he liked even if he was doing it in a way were his mother didn’t have to deal with him anymore. Even he got to feel like he wasn’t wanted in his own home anymore.

                As Tommy and Laurel excitedly talked about the professors who where teaching their classes and what they where excited to learn over the coming year (because of course his friends had to be total nerds for school while he was cranky) Oliver just watched his feet as he walked through the hall. He was so wrapped in his own head that he wasn’t even paying attention to the other students around him. He was missing all the pretty girls showing off the only things they could wear outside the uniform (something he usually enjoyed) and he just couldn’t care.

                He also missed the slightly smaller boy that he all but ran over in his grumpiness. Both boys fell to the floor in surprise for the unexpected accident and Oliver blushed in his embarrassment for his inattentiveness.

                “God damnit! I’m sorry man, I wasn’t looking.” Oliver scrambled to his feet and moved to help the other boy up then stopped short and stared. The boy rubbing his head on the ground was dressed in every aspect of the uniform, his tie done in a fancier knot than Oliver could possibly muster. His hair was long and black, tied ad the nape of his neck with simple elastic hair tie. What really stopped Oliver in his tracks was his pale skin and grey eyes that seemed to be clouded in a permanent sadness.

                “I’m fine.” The boy’s voice was silky smooth, and he seemed dead set to look at anywhere that wasn’t Oliver. He climbed up off the floor and brushed his pants wall while avoiding Oliver’s hand and stare. He glanced over at him, and Tommy and Laurel fighting back their laughter at seeing Oliver failing to be charming. Oliver was floored when the boy frowned, shrugged and murmured ‘Thanks’ before just walking away.

                “Wow Ollie, you just know how to knock people off their feet, you old charmer you.” Tommy laughed burying his face in his hands. Laurel elbowed him and gave Oliver what he was sure was supposed to be reassuring but came off as condescending.

                “You just surprised him. He looked like a Freshman, I bet if it wasn’t the first day of classes, he would have accepted your apology. I mean you did run him over.” Laurel tried to comfort him.           

                “First day of school and I’m already scaring Freshmen… great.” Oliver moaned and shoved his hands into his pockets. Laurel and Tommy, being the great friends they are, broke down into laughter and pulled Oliver along in his funk to their first class. ‘At least I get to have most of my classes with one or both of these two evil minions of darkness.’

                Oliver was content to just sit between or next to Tommy and Laurel, slump down in his seat and ignore whatever the teachers where saying through out the day. That was until he got to his second to last class of the day.

                Walking in, Oliver stopped dead entrance when he saw the smaller dark-haired boy sitting at the desk in the far back corner. Without a second thought he made a bee line for the empty desk besides him, ignoring the surprised call from Tommy behind him. He wanted to talk to him, really apologize, or even just find out what his name was. The other boy had other plans, as he was currently reading a copy of _The Curse of Capistrano_ and ignoring Oliver’s more polite efforts to get his attention.

                Eventually Oliver had to resort to putting his hand on the other boy’s desk while their classmates all watched him with considerable side eye. The boy finally look up and gave Oliver a look with an arched eyebrow.  

                “Can I help you?” He asked with an almost bored with Oliver all ready. Oliver flinched back and felt himself frowning at the cold boy.

                “I wanted to make sure you where ok after I knocked you over.” Oliver heard the petulant child in his voice, but he didn’t care. He wanted to make sure this other boy knew he was sorry. And to get his name.

                “Of course, I am. Its not like you hit me with a baseball bat.” The boy turned back to his book, clearly dismissing Oliver.

                “I’m just trying to apologize.” Oliver grumbled and slumped back into his chair. He heard a snicker across the room and jerked his head up to realize that his focus on the other boy that he hadn’t realize that the seat he too didn’t have a free one around him. He was now going to have to sit through class alone. No one to pass note to, or actually talk to, or run interference for him.

                And most annoyingly was the fact the boy had gone back to his book, ignoring the teacher introducing them to American History. Oliver barely fought back a groan and found himself watching the kid through out the class instead of barely paying attention to the professor like he usually did.

                Once the class ended, he didn’t even get a chance to try and talk to the mystery boy again. He just closed his book and walked away without a word or a glance towards the stunned Oliver. The boy who had been sitting in front of them started laughing when the boy made it out of the artfully dodging any lingering clumps of students.

                “Something funny?” Oliver growled, grabbing his backpack and looking around for Tommy.

                “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen Wayne say more the 4 words to someone. At least someone who wasn’t a professor.” The annoying and swarmy looking boy that Oliver was sure had to be older him said with a nauseating smile. Oliver wanted to flip him off and just get to his last class with Laurel. However, Mister Jerkface (as Oliver had decided to call him for the rest of eternity) had said something that had peeked his interest.

                “Is that his name? Wayne?” Oliver asked trying to hide his distain.

                Mister Jerkface just started laughing again, this time with tears rolling down his face and getting a small crew of moron minions to join in.

                “Fuck, you don’t even know who you where talking to?” Oliver’s new life long enemy wiped his eyes and grinned at Oliver like he was about to offer him a giant chocolate cake. “That was Bruce Wayne. The billionaire orphan prince of Gotham.”

                “I thought everyone know who he was!” Minion A (for asshole) guffawed and slapped his leader’s shoulder in an annoying act of solidarity. He looked at Oliver like he expected him to join in the laughing.

                Oliver just glared at the idiots trying to make him feel small and left the classroom with Tommy surprised that he didn’t stop to talk to him. Oliver knew who Bruce Wayne was, he remembered his mother using his situation as a way to try and guilt him into behaving how she wanted. It had just made him release a box of snakes in a classroom and his mother to sign him up for every after-school program she could find so she didn’t have to actually deal with him when there wasn’t a paid professional around.

                Oliver did remember feeling bad for the boy who watched his parents die. He wondered what he was like. Besides aloof and indifferent. Actually, now that he thought about it, the boy who just ignored him gave off a lonely vibe, not a better than thou vibe. Oliver wanted to know more about him and his friends.

                As he took a seat next to Laurel in his last class of the day, he began to make his plans on how to get to know the lonely boy.

                Two weeks passed with no progress for Oliver’s mission. Not for lack of trying on his part. Oliver quickly realized for being so famous, Bruce Wayne was oddly unknown.

                None of the other student’s saw him as a friend. No one knew about any of his interests. It seemed that Bruce would come to school, sit through his classes and leave without really looking at or talking to anyone he didn’t have to.

                He didn’t flirt or date.

                He wasn’t on a team.

                He would read through most of his classes so even the professors just seemed to not care about him.

                All this lack of information made Oliver ache for the boy. He was sad for how isolated he was and how other let him be so. He was angry about how dismissive the other students were of him. He was upset about how no one wanted to know him.

                But most of all he was intrigued. He wanted to know more about the boy who seemed trapped in his own sadness, pushing the world away to the point that no one seemed to care. He has a feeling that Bruce Wayne could be the most interesting person he ever meet. It that wasn’t a good reason to get to know someone Oliver didn’t know what was.

                The problem was with getting to know Bruce was he had no reason to make him talk to him. Oliver could try and sit next to him all he wanted but Bruce would just ignore him. Oliver would try and corner him in the hall and Bruce would slip away before he could.

                It wasn’t until half way through his third week of classes the Oliver discovered the best way to force Bruce to at least say ‘hi’ to him.

                Oliver was sitting in the cafeteria, eating his overly fancy private school food with an off handed distain while thinking about his new topic of choice (read ‘Obsession’ according to Laurel) when Tommy mentioned something that perked his interest.

                “Research project? For history?” Oliver asked as he sat upright and gave Tommy the must undivided attention, he had give anything since school started.

                Tommy rolls his eyes and shoved a half the chocolate cake he had been enjoying in his mouth, just to make Oliver suffer and squirm. Tommy Merlyn was a good friend.

                “Yeah, didn’t you read the syllabus? The class has two research papers that your supposed to write with a partner. One about an important historical figure in US. History and one about an important historical event. I was asking if you had any idea who you wanted to write about or if I should just pick.”             

                Oliver hummed and drummed his fingers on the table as he thought. If his friends had been paying more attention to him and not to their food, they would have notice his ‘evil plans are brewing’ face.

                “Actually, Tommy, maybe we should work with someone else.” Oliver finally said and, feeling victorious, went back to finish his pot roast.

                Tommy and Laurel stared at Oliver with wide eyed shock. Oliver Queen had never willingly worked on anything in school without Tommy or Laurel. They were constantly his science partners, Laurel and Oliver were legitimate forces of nature when it came to political science, Tommy helped him keep a solid C in his math classes, and if he didn’t have someone making him write for English or history, he would just take the F. Oliver willing to work with someone else, and actually have to put in more work than Tommy or Laurel would make him do, was like finding out the Oliver had chosen to join the priesthood after school.

                Un-Fucking-Believable.

                Laurel was the first one to shake off her shock and fully examined Oliver for a second. She noted that he had given up on his shabby fashion and appearance protests over the last 3 weeks, and now had his charming playboy look back. He seemed determined and focused, and Laurel knew that unless it was for his archery lessons preparing himself for the 2004 Olympics, there was no reason he should seem like he had a mission. No reason but one.

                “Wait is this about your Bruce Wayne obsession?” She asked leaning in close to deter eavesdroppers.

                “I’m not obsessed.” Oliver shot back instantly, his cheeks reddening slightly.

                Tommy laughed and punched Oliver in the arm playfully, relaxing now that he knew what was going on.

                “Trust me, Ollie, your obsessed. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a crush.” When Oliver glared Tommy laughed and blushed moving slightly back. “Not that you wouldn’t have a crush on a boy, Ollie, it just I don’t see you have a crush on someone so Emo.”

                Oliver huffed and shoved his mostly empty plate away. He downed his cup of water to give him a reason to walk away and glare at his friends one more time before he left the cafeteria.

                “I’m not obsessed, I’m not crushing, I’m interested is all. Besides he seems smart and might be nice to actually have a chance to meet someone other than you two dark minions.” Oliver gathered up his eating utensils to put them away. “Now excuse me but I have better things to do than be ripped apart right now. Like think of possible historical figures to write about.”

                Oliver decided that since he still had time before his next class that the library was his best bet for peace and quiet. And research. He was surprised as he grabbed a few books to look over to find Bruce Wayne sitting at one of the tables, bent over an almanac, running his fingers over something on the page in front of him. Unable to believe his luck Oliver went to sit across form him at the table.

                Bruce practically jumped in his seat and looked at Oliver with shock and surprise. He quickly closed the book he was studying and fixed a glare on his face. Oliver wasn’t fooled, he saw the embarrassment on his face first.

                “Can I help you Queen?” Bruce asked with a voice that spoke to a life of being trained to be polite and well manners, but still he was teenage so there was an appropriate amount of snark.

                Oliver grinned openly and wiggled to become more comfortable in the vaguely uncomfortable library chairs. Seeing Bruce annoyed, and off kilter, was amusing and Oliver wanted to reveal in it.

                “Just wanted to check base with you, Wayne.” Oliver smirked and grabbed the book Bruce had been studying. Bruce tried to grab the book back, but Oliver was too strong and fast for the boy who was fighting with his surprise.

                “I was reading that!” Bruce hissed and tried to grab the book again.

                Oliver moved out of Bruce’s grasp quickly and flipped through the book. It was nothing but maps, with small articles about ancient peoples who live in the areas being shown. It was interesting, but Oliver couldn’t find himself caring about parts of it. He did find himself thinking about area he remembered some of the places he had debated about in political science.

                Oliver clearly had certain interests.

                “You planning a trip or just interest in different ethnic groups?” Oliver asked truly intrigued by Bruce’s interests.

                “Why you want some tips?” Bruce practically growled sending a shiver down Oliver’s spin, surprising him slightly about how quickly Bruce could turn from disinterest to fury so quickly. It only made Oliver want to know him more.

                “No, I’m just interested. It could be fun to travel around places and see the world for some reason or another.” Oliver said truthfully, placing the book back on the table to push it back towards Bruce. Bruce looked surprised and just slipped the book into his arms, holding it against his chest like it was a shield for a few minutes.

                Oliver smiled as he could see the confusion on Bruce’s face and decided to move close to the tilted boy.

                “You’re not going to mock me?”

                “Why should I? You have your interests I have mine. I think wanting to know more about the world is kind of cool.”

                “I want to learn about how people protect themselves.” Bruce whispered the correction with his eyes boring down on the table. His discomfort with being able to talk about himself was palpable. Oliver tilted his head and moved to gently touch the boy’s shoulder. Only his shoulder, he didn’t want to scare him away.

                “That’s cool, seriously. I love learning about political science, and archery. I like learning about how people live in their homes, and how we can all help each other. That’s kind of my thing.” Oliver informed Bruce so he would feel more comfortable.

                Bruce smiled slightly at the admission. He lifted his head and looked Oliver in the eye for the first time since he had knocked him over in the hallway. For a brief moment Oliver held his breath as those oddly warm grey eyes were on him, making him fill the full intensity of his attention.

                Maybe he did have a slight crush after all. Not that it changed his current goals.

                “Archery?” Bruce asked seeming genuinely interested in Oliver for the first time. Oliver hoped the fact his heart just skipped a beat at the interest wasn’t noticeable on his face.

                “Yeah, I… had an issue with authority when I was younger, and my mother decided to sign me up for a bunch of activities to see what would stick. Archery did, I’m not bad and its kind of fun. I’m even planning on trying for the Olympics after I graduate.” Oliver blushed feeling kind of stupid about his interests.

                “Could… would you… show me some time?” Bruce blushed again and seemed to fold in on himself. Oliver couldn’t help but wonder when the last time someone talked to Bruce about something other than his parents. Bruce seemed to be revealing in the attention and desire to know about someone else.

                Oliver smiled and patted Bruce on his back.

                “When ever you want, bud. I’m cocky enough to enjoy showing off.” Oliver said with a laugh and wink, making Bruce laugh as well.

                “That’s good, I’d hate for your ego to not handle some showing off.” Oliver barked out a laugh again at Bruce’s snark. Bruce practically glowed under the pleasure of the Oliver enjoying his jokes.

                “Hey Bruce,” Oliver swallowed and shifted in his seat, deciding to bite the bullet. “You know how there are two research papers for history? You… You want to work on them with me?”

                Bruce blinked and buried his face again, hugging the book closer and sending off aura of discomfort in an instant.

                “I… usually work alone.” He whispered and curled tighter around himself, and the book

                “Oh, if you don’t like working with people, I can just ask Tommy…” Oliver moved to give Bruce space, worried he had pushed him too far.

                “No!” Bruce grabbed Oliver’s hand before he could move to far away and blushed. “I mean… usually people don’t want to work with me… or even consider working with me…”

                Oliver moved back to his position sitting next to Bruce, scooting closer so his knee would bang against the other boys.

                “That sucks, because I think your pretty cool and would be fun to work with.” Oliver was surprised at how honest he sounded.

                Bruce blushed again and nodded, his throat bobbing like he was struggling to talk. Oliver decided not to push him any further. He just patted Bruce’s shoulder again and moved slightly away.

                “I have archery practice after class but… we can talk about the projects during lunch tomorrow if you would like.” Bruce nodded and watched him as he gathered up the books he collected for research. Bruce didn’t stop him this time but did slowly relax as his world seemed to move back to its normal axis. Oliver wasn’t even offended, Bruce obviously was not use to any attention directed on him. Oliver could deal with that.

                Before he could walk away though he had a thought. He turned back to Bruce for a second, watching him replace the book on the table and take some steading breath.

                “Hey Bruce?”

                “Yes… Oliver?” Oliver had to smile at how uncomfortable Bruce was just saying his name.

                “Do you… Do you sit in the library every lunch?” Oliver wanted to know how to find him, and he was saddened by the thought that Bruce was isolating himself once a day.

                The blush on Bruce’s face was all the confirmation he needed.

                “Not every lunch…” Bruce murmured, his eyes locked on his hands on the table.

                “Ok… Cool… would it be ok if I brought Tommy and Laurel next time?” Oliver didn’t want to make Bruce dwell on the discomfort of the conversation.

                “Tommy and Laurel?” Bruce looked over at Oliver with surprise.

                “Yeah Tommy Merlyn and Laurel Lance.” Oliver explained. “I usually eat with them, and they might enjoy seeing us try and work together.”

                “Are you expecting this to be a… chore?” Bruce tried to look stone faced but a smile twitching on his face belied his amusement.

                “I’ve been told I’m impossible, so you might like to have a few allies.” Oliver smiled over at Bruce, happy to see it mirrored on the other boy’s face. Oliver had feeling he didn’t even know he was doing it.

                “I think I can handle some… extra company.” Bruce finally said, looking interested in the fact someone else might want to hand out with him.

                “Good, cool… see you in class.” Oliver finally moved to leave Bruce to his studying.

                “See you in class, Oliver.” Bruce sounded interested.

                He just dropped the books on a self as he exited the library, happy to have the chance to hang out with Bruce and get to know him. Now he just had to deal with the teasing of Laurel and Tommy.

                The next day Oliver assurance that he is a pain to work with came true. Laurel and Tommy has been ok to join them, even grabbing sandwiches and juice for them to eat when Oliver forgot about it. Bruce was sitting at the same table as the last time, this time with stakes of books and a laptop in front of him. When the other three teens joined him, he looked happy and embarrassed at the same time.

                When he and Oliver started to work though Bruce’s smile disappeared in to a steely, in control boss look that made Oliver’s stomach flop. It didn’t help that Oliver was being difficult.

                “We can’t just do George Washington.” Bruce argued.

                “Why not! There are plenty of books about him, so we can get the information fast and its easy!” Oliver pouted and pushed away one of the books in front of him.

                “Exactly! Everyone is going to do it if they want an easy grade, so we should pick another person and the teacher just gives us an A for not making him read about Washington again.”

                Tommy and Laurel laughed as Oliver look at Bruce in shock.

                “Are you saying that you want to be difficult because the teacher will just throw a grade at you.” Oliver said slowly.

                “Of course, Professor Jones is completely lazy.” Bruce said pulling out a new book to study.

                Oliver felt his jaw drop and turned to get confirmation of how silly this all was from Tommy. Tommy just smirked at Oliver and enjoyed his sandwich and winked at him.

                “You finally meet someone who feels like you when it comes to grades, Ollie, the path of most annoyance is preferred.” Laurel ribbed him and downed half her juice.

                For weeks this was how it went too. Oliver and Bruce would argue as they wrote their paper, sometimes intelligently, sometimes with a sense of humor that made Laurel and Tommy roll their eyes and rive Oliver for flirting latter. Oliver didn’t care because Bruce turned out to be really interesting.

                Bruce didn’t drink coffee but was a tea snob and blamed his British caregiver.

                Bruce loved old school mysteries and adventure books, as well as Victorian romances.

                Bruce was interesting fight styles and weapons and watched Oliver at practice with rapturous fascination.

                Bruce had a dry sense of humor and would happily join Tommy and Laurel in mocking Oliver for some reason or another.

                Oliver had decided after 2 days that Bruce had to be one of his best friends. He decided that if Bruce ever showed any interest, he was going to date him in a second by the end of the first week. He knew he was hopelessly in love by the time they were turning in their paper.

                Oliver was desperate to keep Bruce around that he latched on the first non-academic reason to hang up. The party of some Senior named Drake or something. Tommy and Laurel were interested in going because most of the students were invited and it was the first big party of the school year, despite it almost being December by then.

                Gotham apparently wasn’t big on high end underage ragers much to Oliver’s displeasure.

                He asked Bruce to join them right after he heard about the party, hoping to see him relax for once, the next time he joined him in the library for lunch. Bruce gave him a funny look when he asked and Oliver suddenly felt uncomfortable.

                “No one has ever asked me to go to a party with them… I haven’t been to one since… since before.” Bruce blushed, and wringed his hands. Oliver felt his heart seize in sadness at the sight.

                “So, you don’t want to go?” Oliver asked hoping he didn’t sound disappointed.

                “No… I just… don’t know what to do… at a party.” Bruce curled in on himself, something by now Oliver knew meant he felt like a child among adults.

                “You don’t have to DO anything Brucie, in fact…” Oliver had a sudden crazy thought and he could hear Tommy and Laurel groaning already. “Why don’t we make it a whole day!”

                “Day?” Bruce perked up and seemed interested and suspicious. Oliver couldn’t blame him; Tommy and Laurel had told him about all of his greatest bad ideas and failures.

                “24 hours, you, me, Tommy and Laur, we do a bunch of crazy teen stuff, like bad dinner food, movies, getting drunk at said party, and hang out someplace genially weird like the mall or something. Maybe even play some weird board game or video game.”

                “Why?” Bruce seemed excited but apprehensive. “Its not like we still have a project to work on…”

                “Because we are friends and we should be able to hang out outside of school and this library. Besides, don’t you want your own stories of my bad decision-making processes?” Oliver tried to keep it light, but his heart was breaking with the thought that Bruce didn’t want to hang out with him.

                “We’re… you want to be friends with me?” Bruce unfurled a little and looked at Oliver through his eye lashes. Oliver felt the smile on his face bloom to a full-on shit eating grin. This was something he could handle.

                “We’re already friends! This is just us hanging out.” Oliver reassured and squeezed Bruce’s knee to convey that he genuinely enjoyed being around the other boy. He also just enjoyed feeling the warmth of Bruce’s skin beneath his hand.

                Bruce dropped his hand to squeeze Oliver’s back and smiled, still looking down but unfurling his body more.

                “Ok, but what would we do besides the party?”

                “Leave it to me Brucie, we are going to have some fun trust me. I’ll pick you up at 7pm on Friday and we’ll have fun.” Oliver checked the time and realized he needed to run if he was going to meet with Tommy and Laurel before his next class. “I got to run, I’ll see you in history.”

                Before he left Bruce tightened his grip on his hand and pulled him back, finally looking up to look him the eye with those shocking grey blue eyes.

                “You mean it right? That we are friends? Even if I’m… weird?”

                Oliver had to fight his heart breaking at the light bit of desperation in the other boy’s voice.

                “Bruce, I promise you, baring trying to kill me, there is nothing that could make me stop being your friend. I’m pretty sure we were friends the moment I meet you.”

                Bruce nodded and let Oliver’s hand go, and Oliver had to stop himself from grabbing the hand back again to hold in his. His crush was getting a little needy and he didn’t want to scare the other boy by pushing too much physical intimacy, even if it was just friendly. Or at least, he hoped it came off as just friendly.

                Oliver spent the rest of the week doing research so that he could make sure that even if the party sucked, Bruce could have fun being dragged around with the three life long friends. His plan was weird and crazy, but the friends should have a few laughs.

                He had his bodyguard (which his moved insisted he have for when he traveled around Gotham proper because while she trusted him to go to school there she didn’t trust he son to stay alive in the dangerous city) drive him to the Wayne Manor, which he had to admit was kind of intimidating and larger than the school itself. He had to remind himself that the only people who lived in this Victorian castle were Bruce and his caregiver Alfred. Oliver had grown up in large house full of staff, Bruce was growing up in a larger manor with just two people. No wonder he seemed so shy and lonely.

                Oliver was surprised when a man dressed in a full English Butler’s uniform answered the door when he knocked, knowing he had probably buzzed the driver in at the gate. He hadn’t realized that Bruce’s caregiver was choosing to act as a butler still.

                “Master Oliver I presume?” The crisp and proper British accent of the man made Olive feel guilty, like he had committed a crime just being there. It was probably because this man was basically Bruce’s father and Oliver has had… impure thoughts about Bruce. It didn’t mean he wasn’t sweating as he tried to clear the lump in his throat.

                “Yes, yes sir.” Oliver cringed at how small and scared he sounded.

                “No need for all that. I am Alfred Pennyworth, Master Bruce’s butler and caregiver.” The older man smiled and moved to let Oliver into the entrance. Oliver obliged, if only because not doing so seemed even more terrifying at the moment.

                But then Oliver found himself alone with the man who was raising Bruce Wayne. In an empty grand entrance way. Of a large estate that was 99% unoccupied. Where it could be years before anyone found a dead body.

                Oliver knew he was going to die. He just knew it.

                “Uh… is Bruce ready?” Oliver squeaked. He was usually much better around parents. He has smirked at Quentin Lance as he was screaming at him for being a delinquent, and that man openly carried a weapon. But a man who was probably 15 years his father’s senior filled him unmitigated terror.

                “Master Bruce is just finishing packing an over night bag. May I offer you some tea?” The older man smiled, a smile that should seem kind but filled Oliver with further dread. Oliver decided he just had better cooperate and get this over with.

                “Sure, tea is nice.”

                The older man led Oliver into a study, where a pot of tea and a plate of cookies was waiting with two cups. Alfred had planned for this.

                Oliver took one of the seats and accepted the cup of tea and a small plate with 2 of the cookies, which he stuffed into his mouth out of fear. He was surprised at how good the cookies where.

                The older man took the spot across from him and poured his own tea, giving Oliver a small smirk and eye brow tilt at Oliver’s surprise over the cookies.

                “So, I understand you and Master Bruce have started up a friendship as of late.” Alfred started up without warning, causing Oliver to choke a bit on his cookie. Oliver quickly swallowed and took a sip of the surprisingly smooth and calming tea before he nodded.

                “He’s a very interesting guy.” Oliver tried to defend his friendship.

                “I’m glad.” Seeing the surprise on Oliver’s face the British man smiled and took another sip of his tea. “Master Bruce hasn’t had many people in his life over the last 7 years. From what I understand you have been nothing but kind and open to him.”

                “I try, Sir-err… Mr. Pennyworth.”

                “I take it you have noticed that Bruce is a bit, withdrawn I believe it the best way to put it.” Alfred asked, focusing all of his attention on to Oliver.

                “I did actually, I don’t understand why… He’s really smart, funny and genuinely nice.” Oliver relaxed when he realized his life wasn’t being immediately threatened.

                “It comes from being such a public figure for so long, I’m sure.” Alfred put his cup down and folded his hands in his lap examining Oliver for a solid minute. Oliver tried not to squirm and instead focus on his cookies.

                “I wanted to let you know that I am aware of your reputation Master Oliver.” When Oliver began to choke again to try and defend himself, Alfred raised a hand and shook his head. “I’m not condemning anything young sir, we have all had our misspent youths. In fact, I’m hoping a bit of your… energy and lust for life might rub off on Master Bruce. What I want to do is ask you one simple question.”

                Oliver finally swallowed his cookie and nodded vigorously.

                “Anything Mr. Pennyworth. Anything!” Oliver was determined to gain this man’s approval.

                “Try to keep him out of danger or trouble.”

                “Of course, that goes without question. I may make… poor decisions, every now and then, but I have never done anything dangerous on purpose. Even when I set that car on fire, I made sure my friend Tommy was safe and out of the way as fast as possible.” Oliver blushed as he tried to defend himself.

                “I believe you young sir, I just wanted to hear you say so. Do you have a mobile phone?”

                “Yeah, of course.” Oliver pulled out his phone and showed the older man.

                “May I see it?”

                Oliver handed over his phone and blushed again as he watched Alfred enter something into it. Alfred handed it back when he was done, and Oliver was surprised to see a new contact.

                “My personal line, if you have any problems, please call me. I will be there as soon as possible, no questions asked.” The older man informed.

                “I have a body guard sir, my mother insisted.”

                “Are you saying I should believe you will never do anything to try and escape his gaze?” The older man reprimanded Oliver with a soft smile and a knowing wink that made him blush.

                “That’s probably a good assumption.” Oliver sighed and put his phone away. “I promise, if anything happens, I will call you.”

                “Very good sir. Now I shall go see what is taking Master Bruce so long.” The old man stood up with a stiff fluidity that made Oliver’s hair stand up on end, like the other man was so proper that it made Oliver’s wilder nature seem unnatural. “Oh, one last thing?”

                “Yes Mr. Pennyworth?”

                “Please call me Alfred, it is much simpler.”

                “Of course, Mr.- Alfred.”

                “Enjoy the cookies Master Oliver, I baked them just for you.”

                Oliver blushed again and shoved another cookie into his mouth to hide his embarrassment. Something about the old butler/guardian was very soothing, while still conveying a quiet power and grace. Oliver was still sure that Alfred Pennyworth could make his world a ball of pain and agony while still being able to keep the Manor in perfect shape.

                Some aspects of Bruce’s personality suddenly made sense.

                Oliver made it through half the plate of cookies (and wondered if he could talk Alfred into baking more again sometime in the future) when Bruce knocked on the doorjamb.

                Oliver wiped his crumby face and downed his tea to clear his throat. It was the first time he had ever seen Bruce out of the full school uniform with his intimidatingly fancy tied tie. He was dressed in a black button-down shirt that he had mercifully left untucked over dark blue jeans and rather comfortable looking boots. Bruce smiled at Oliver when he stood up and took in his appearance.

                “Were you having tea?” Bruce asked taking in the room as Oliver went to join him.

                “Alfred made it for me.” Oliver confirmed, wondering why Bruce cared.

                “That’s odd.” Bruce said looking at Oliver curiously before turning back to the study to examine it again.

                “Why?” Oliver was concerned. He didn’t like being the curiosity.

                “Alfred hasn’t made tea for anyone but me in 7 years. He won’t even make tea for the board members of Wayne Enterprise or the Social worker who comes by once a month to make sure the weird British guy is actually taking care of me.” Bruce said with a bit of bitterness in his voice, making Oliver wonder about how the adults in his life treated him.

                “Really? Well he makes good tea and great cookies.”

                “He baked you cookies too?”

                “Bruce you’re making me self-conscience.”

                “I’m just trying to figure out why.”

                “The why is simple, Master Bruce, because he is your friend for the sake of being your friend.” Alfred showed up behind the boys so quietly that Oliver jumped a little and noticed Bruce stiffen slightly in surprise. Oliver was now convinced that in another life Alfred was some kind of quiet assassin and was only in their lives now because he got bored killing people.

                Oliver was determined to not be one of this man’s marks.

                “If you say so Alfred.” Bruce said carefully and calmly, turning to look the older gentleman in the eye. Oliver turned too and noticed the older man was holding an expensive designer duffle bag, a heavy over coat and a brown paper bag folded neatly and perfectly at the top.

                “The weather has been taking a turn lately, Master Bruce, so I fetched you over coat. I also took the liberty of packaging some cookies for you and your friends to enjoy later tonight.” Alfred informed the young boy, draping the coat over his shoulders and handing over the bag of cookies. “I will follow you out to the car and load your bag for you sir.”

                “That’s not necessary.” Bruce stated as he fixed the coat over his form and checked the packaging for the cookies.

                “Of course, it is, it is my jobs sir.” Alfred replied dryly and turned to walk to the door. “If it would please the young masters, I’m sure you are worried about missing the party.”

                “I don’t think it will be possible to miss, Alfred.” Oliver said with a smile, following behind the proper man, happy to get to his planned evening. He was a little surprised that Bruce didn’t follow immediately, so he grabbed him by the arm and gently pulled him along. Bruce moved to grab Oliver’s hand instead and Oliver’s heart rate jumped, and his mouth went dry as he interlocked his fingers with Bruce.

                “Neither the less.” Alfred held open the door for Oliver, and Bruce quietly followed behind seemingly lost in his own thoughts while he held on to Oliver’s hand, trusting him to lead him safely. Oliver felt like he was walking on air with how casual Bruce was being.

                Alfred stored the over night bag in the trunk once Oliver’s body guard opened it for him, so Oliver directed Bruce into the back seat. He turned to Alfred and nodded at him with a small smile when he noticed the appreciation in the older man’s eyes. Even if they were just friends, at least he had the approval of the scariest man he ever meet.

                Once Oliver joined Bruce in the back seat, his body guard took back his position in the driver’s side and locked the doors. As the pulled away Bruce turned to Oliver and arched his eye brow.

                “He let you call him Alfred?”

                Oliver just laughed and lightly punched Bruce in the shoulder, feeling the enormity of the approval of Bruce’s only family member on his shoulders. He was approved of and welcome. It was a interesting feeling.

                When they got to the party Bruce seemed taken aback by the noise and the mass of people. He had had to be convinced that his cookies where better off left in the care and instantly pasted himself to Oliver’s side as the party became more in focus. Oliver couldn’t fight the amused smile.

                Oliver had to admit, the party was a bit over the top, and he fully blamed the fact the Gothamites had waited to long to relax. He guided Bruce through the crowd, one hand on the other boy’s upper arm, as he searched for Laurel and Tommy.

                He had received enough texts on the way to this party to not be surprised by how he found them, with Laurel attempting to dance on a table with a bottle of vodka and Tommy sitting beneath her, cheering her on was he took swigs from a bottle of rum. Oliver sighed and rubbed his eyes when he found them. Bruce just stared dumbfounded at the sight.

                “Are they drunk?”

                “Yes, yes they are.” Oliver ground out and slumped a little. “They aren’t supposed to be drunk, we agreed to stay sober today.”

                Bruce tugged on Oliver’s arm and pulled him back to look him in the eyes. Oliver really needed to build an immunity for those blue grey eyes.

                “Where you going to stay sober for me?” Bruce’s face was unreadable, and Oliver felt his guts twist and his shoulder slump at the question.

                “Its your first party, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Oliver mumbled and kicked the ground lightly, feeling embarrassed and a bit uncomfortable.

                “Thank you, I don’t know if I would have enjoyed tonight at all if all of you got drunk and I didn’t.” Bruce squeezed the arm beneath his hand and smiled a bit bashfully. “And I’m really sure I wouldn’t want to get drunk here.”

                “Yeah well, now we get to spend the night keeping those to clothed and upright.”

                “Clothed?” Bruce’s eye brow twitched up and a smile threatened to spread out on his face.

                “You don’t know Tommy like I do. He seems to be allergic to pants when he’s drunk.” Right then Tommy let out a cheer and stood up, beginning to undo his belt. Oliver rushed forward pulling Bruce along and grabbed one of Tommy’s arms.

                “Hey there Bud, let’s not lose those just yet.” Oliver said soothingly and tried to get Tommy back in a seat.

                “OLLIE!!!!! YOU’RE HERE!” Tommy crowed and wrapped his arms around his head. Oliver needed a minute to escape the death grip and grimaced at just how drunk Tommy appeared to be. Bruce was snickering slightly behind him when he suddenly remembered Laurel.

                He only remembered because he was suddenly tackled to the ground by a squealing, clingy and drunk Laurel.

                “Seriously, how are you just drunk this soon.” Oliver moaned as he disentangled himself from Laurel and slung her into Tommy’s lap. When he got up off the floor and made sure his drunk friends weren’t about to hurt themselves or strip naked, he turned to apologize to Bruce for their behavior. Bruce wasn’t behind him anymore and Oliver felt his heart jump into his throat as he became frantic to find Bruce.

                He looked around for Bruce and found him being crowded against a wall by a tall length blonde girl, who had her hand on his chest. Bruce looked like he was about to have a panic attack and was frantically darting his eyes around the room clearly looking for a rescue.

                Oliver quickly slipped up besides Bruce and tugged him gently away from the girl, wrapping his arm around his waist. Bruce noticeably relaxed into his embrace and smiled appreciatively at Oliver.

                “You doing alright over here Brucie?” Oliver asked trying not to glare at the girl who was clearly glaring at him. He was sure the only reason he succeeded was hearing Bruce give a relaxed sigh and almost snuggle into his grip.

                “I’m fine, Miss Winters just had some questions for me.” Bruce said, clearly implying that he wanted to be anywhere but there with his eyes, even while his voice remained calm and almost bored.

                “We were getting to know each other, you’re not needed.” Blonde Skank (Oliver was refusing to actually remember her name if she was that rude to his friends) actually made a shoeing motion with her hands, her predatory eyes locked on Bruce like he was her next meal. Bruce wiggled a big closer to Oliver and it made Oliver want to shove the girl away and escape with Bruce right then and there.

                Oliver had only been at this party for 10 minutes, but he was already done.

                “We’ll unfortunately we have to get going, we were just picking up our friends.” Oliver started pulling Bruce towards Tommy and Laurel who had decided to start making out while Oliver was preoccupied.

                “We are?” Bruce seemed surprised, but with one quick look from Oliver he relented and smiled. “Yes of course we are, this party is pretty…Lame?”

                Oliver snorted at Bruce’s attempt to seem superior. Though he did notice a few people who had been watch them start mumbling about how the party sucked and looking around like they were trying to decide if they wanted to bail from the party as well. It had to be some kind of Wayne gene if Bruce could make or break a party with just a word when he wasn’t even the most popular kid in school.

                Or maybe Bruce was the most popular kid in school (Or at least famous) and his isolation before Oliver was the other students being too intimidated to befriend him. That was an interesting thought.

                Oliver decided not to dwell to much on the weirdness of the party, choosing instead to grab one of Tommy’s arms while Bruce grabbed one of Laurel, and the pair tugged and wove their friends through the oppressive crowd of the party ack out to the car were Oliver’s bodyguard was sitting working on a crossword puzzle.

                Oliver was impressed with his mother’s hiring skills, as the bodyguard didn’t even bat an eye at Oliver being back so soon, with two drunk teenagers in tow. He shoved Tommy into the front seat and told the body guard where to go, before he joined Bruce and Laurel in the backseat. Oliver tried not to pout when he realized Laurel was situated between him and Bruce.

                “Can I ask you a question Oliver?” Bruce asked after Laurel decided to doze off on Ollie’s shoulder and Tommy had decided to start singing off key with the song he put on the radio.

                “Sure Bruce.” Oliver responded, gently slipping Laurel back to look Bruce in the eyes.

                “Are parties usually that awful?”

                Oliver laughed and reached over to squeeze Bruce’s knee, a small amount of pride swelling in his chest when the other boy blushed.

                “Not necessarily, Drake just apparently wanted a drunken night of idiocy.” Oliver reassured Bruce. He thought a second and then realized he had to ask the question he should have asked earlier. “Hey, was that chick making you uncomfortable? You looked like you were ready to bolt.”

                “Oh yeah… since last fall every month or so some girl decides she wants to be the next Mrs. Wayne, Queen of the Gotham elite, and tries to… make me their own? I guess.” Bruce blushed again.

                “And… you’re not interested?” Oliver asked only a touch hopeful. He was really interested in seeing why Bruce wasn’t taking the opportunity to have more people in his life.

                “Its not that I’m _not_ interested. I just don’t… know what to do? How to date? And I’m not just going to get engaged or something at 15, I’m smarter than that.” Bruce said staring down at the floorboard.

                “Oh, dating is easy, it’s the figuring out if you actually like someone that’s hard.” Oliver said, his heart only breaking slightly at the other boy’s confession. He had vaguely hoped he was going to state a disinterest in woman entirely to make it easier for him,

                “How is dating easy?” Bruce whined slightly, betraying his total lack of experience.

                Oliver couldn’t help it; the night had been totally surreal, and it wasn’t even 8pm yet. Oliver started laughing, loud and out of control. He laughed so hard that tears started rolling down his checks and he had to grip his side because they hurt.

                Bruce was not amused, and for the first time since Oliver had meet him, he didn’t seem shy or uncertain at all. He just seemed indignant and a touch angry.

                “I don’t know what is so funny, Queen.” Bruce’s voice dripped steel and venom and only made Oliver laugh harder for a good 10 seconds.

                “I’m *gasp* sorry *chuckle* it’s not you! *giggle* I swear!” Oliver gasped and wiped his face, taking a few seconds to collect himself, though his body still shock with tiny tremors of laughter. “It’s just of all the things I would expect to happen tonight, explaining how to date wasn’t one of them.”

                Bruce pouted again, and Oliver glanced out the window. He realized they were close to their next destination and decided a breakdown of what one does while dating could wait a few more minutes.

                “Look, Brucie, we’re almost there. I promise you, once we are all situated, and these chuckle heads have something to drink that doesn’t have the word ‘proof’ in its description, I’ll give you some pointers.” Oliver patted Bruce’s shoulder, smiling a bit to himself when he felt Bruce relax again.

                “Almost there? Wait, where are we going?” Bruce looked out the window with a slight bit of panic.

                “We can’t take these two back to dorms with them this far gone. They’ll get in trouble. We are going to have some dinner, so they can sober up a bit, then we’ll go on from there. I was wondering if you would like to see a movie. The theater on the edge of town is showing _Unbreakable.”_ Oliver smiled, and this time took a minute to brush Laurel’s hair from her face. He wanted to make sure his friend wasn’t about to die of alcohol poisoning.

                Laurel opened her eyes at his touch and smiled dopily at him.

                “Hey Ollie!” Laurel looked around confused. “We’re not at the party?”

                “Nope we are getting waffles and mashed potatoes.” Seeing the slight look of horror cross over Bruce’s face, Oliver stage whispered over Laurel. “Waffles and mashed potatoes are Tommy and Laurel’s sober me up food. Makes them happy, they can keep them down and stops them from wanting to drink more.”

                Laurel proved the first part of his defense of dinner food, by petting Oliver’s head and cooing “I love waffles!” before snuggling into his arm pit and going octopus on his ribs. Oliver could only sigh and shrug at Bruce. Like Tommy become terminally allergic to pants while drunk, Laurel became a snuggling toddler while drunk. Oliver knew he was prone to being extra stupid while drunk, if the picture of him trying to rock climb naked, or drag race in go carts, or the one time he broke into an amusement park were any indication.

                “Do they are least going eat something with protein.” Bruce asked still looking a little green at the thought.

                “Oh yeah, if I can I get them chicken fingers, and most diner will give you shredded cheese on your mashed potatoes if you ask nice enough.” Oliver smiled brightly and resisted the urge to laugh again at the slight look of horror. Oliver kind of doubted that Bruce’s prim and proper guardian had ever made his food taste better by adding cheese.

                “I don’t think I ever want to be drunk, if that’s the kind of food drunk people eat.” Bruce whined.

                “That’s a valid life choice and I will stand behind it one hundred percent if that’s what you choose. I will point out that when I’m drunk my usual drunk food is to get an extra-large vegetarian pizza with extra sauce and eat it alone.”

                “Now see that makes sense! I could get behind eating a whole pizza.” Bruce smiled enjoying the less heavy topic.

                It wasn’t too much longer before Oliver’s body guard was pulling into a mostly empty parking lot of a greasy diner. Oliver smiled at the appearance of the place, knowing that Bruce was going to be horrified at the inside.

                Ten minutes, and one nearly successful drunk escape attempt later (god damn did Laurel get petulant when she was drunk) Oliver was maneuvering his friends into a booth in the back corner (with his body guard taking a table half way between them and the door, with that very same crossword puzzle) and fighting a laugh seeing Bruce grimace at the texture of the table. Slightly sticky with no sign of spilled sugar and the sickly smell of food safe disinfectant.

                Oliver was practically drooling at the smell.

                “Are you sure this place is… safe to eat in?” Bruce whispered to Oliver as a cranky 50 something waitress gave them their menus and took their coffee and drink orders. Oliver even enjoyed the glare he got from Bruce when he ordered him a root beer float when he was only going to get a glass of water.

                “Perfectly safe. Didn’t you see the gas station next door?” Oliver said as he studied the menu, which had all the usual flair and some kind of Gotham seafood special that Oliver was debating.

                “What does that have to do with anything?” Bruce hisses refusing to look in his own menu. Oliver just sighed and put down his menu to look Bruce in the eye. He gulped when he realized for the first time that because of how he maneuvered Tommy and Laurel (Who were currently trying to fold origami… toads? Out of their napkins) Bruce was sitting next to him.

                “The gas station next door is designed for shipping trucks to refuel, which means that the truckers would most likely come here to eat. There is no way this place would still be open if the food was bad or unsafe, truckers are notorious gossips. Trust me, it may be a little low brow compared to what your use to but this stuff will probably be great.”

                Bruce didn’t seem convinced. Oliver sighed and reach over to steal his menu.

                “Fine how about this, I’ll order you something and if you hate it or you get sick, I’ll… I don’t know fold your laundry for a week.”

                “Alfred does my laundry.” Bruce looked curious about the offer.

                “He probably would enjoy the help then.” Oliver offered his hand to the other boy to shake. “Deal?”

                “Fine, deal.” Bruce shook his hand. “But why did you order me a root beer float?”

                “Have you ever had a root beer float?”

                “No.”

                “That’s why Brucie.”

                “Why do you keep calling me that?” Bruce blushed slightly.

                “Do you not like it?” Oliver blushed too, he was always worried about making Bruce uncomfortable.

                “No… I like it.” Bruce smiled with a bit of light in those grey blue eyes that called to Oliver. Oliver gulped and smiled back, feeling his heart rate jump again at that smile.

                “Good but remember if I ever say or so anything to make you uncomfortable, tell me or hit me in the shoulder or something. I don’t want to be an ass.”              

                “Really? I thought being an ass was your life goal.” Bruce said turning to smile at the waitress as she returned with their drinks leaving Oliver to gap like a fish at the burn Bruce just laid on his shoulders.

                Oliver quickly gave their orders to the Waitress deciding on the traditional burger and fires with a side salad for Bruce, a chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli for him and the promised waffles, with fried chicken and mashed potatoes for Laurel and Tommy. Tommy and Laurel had descended on the chocolate strawberry milk shakes Oliver had ordered them before the waitress left.

                Oliver and Bruce wound up just chatting about random things, areas of interest like ancient history or tv shows, while Tommy and Laurel were practically toddlers they were babysitting. Oliver laughed when Bruce used a fork and knife to eat his burger but the surprised happy look on the other boys face filled Oliver with pride and vindication.

                Bruce was even polite enough to keep his looks of horror to a minimum as Laurel and Tommy drowned their waffles in gravy and ate with their fingers. It probably helped that Oliver had reprimanded them and wiped their fingers off with a napkin and forced them to use forks.

                Before long the teens just wound up sitting in their seats finishing their drinks. Oliver enjoyed the relaxed calm, especially since Bruce had wiggled a bit closer.

                “So…” Bruce said as he licked his spoon clean of the remains of his root beer float.

                “So?” Oliver asked with a smirk.

                “You were right, the food was good.”

                “Victory!” Oliver did a small fist pump and winked at Bruce. Who immediately blushed again and smiled goofily at him.

                “But what do we do now?”

                “I’m thinking a movie. There are few late-night showings.” Oliver said checking the time. Just past 9. Plenty of time.

                “With them?” Bruce pointed to Tommy and Laurel who had calmed down a bit and were now dozing against each other.

                “Sure, why not? They will behave and I’m not sure it is a good idea to let them loose in the dorms alone right now. Laurel may decide to have a fashion show.”

                At that Laurel perked up and narrowed her eyes at Oliver. She pasted a sweet and charming and totally fake smile on her mouth that did nothing to hide the predatory glint in her eyes.

                “Ollie…” Laurel purred and leaned forward making Bruce’s eyes widen in surprise.

                “No Laurel.”

                “But you look so pretty in green!” Laurel pouted.

                “I’m not afraid to hit a girl Laurel, you’re not dressing me up in one of your get-ups.”

                Bruce looked terrified and fascinated. Oliver sighed and set to explain exactly what is happening.

                “When Laurel gets drunk, or really, really bored as the spring break in 7th grade revealed, she likes to dress people up in drag. And by people, I mean me and Tommy. We’ve had to steal his camera or phone more times than I can count too.”

                “Oh, Brucie…” Laurel said in a sing-song voice, her eyes twinkling and her smile returning.

                “Ok I didn’t like the nickname just then.” Bruce whispered and moved closer to Oliver like he was his life line.

                “Laurel, no dress up. Leave Bruce alone.” Oliver reprimanded his drunk friend and tapped her on the wrist to make sure she heard him. Laurel just pouted again and mumbled ‘Tommy would let me.’ To which Oliver chuckled.

                “Yeah well Tommy is drunker than you I feel.”

                “OLLIE, OLLIE, OLLIE!” Tommy suddenly sat up straight ant looked excited. Oliver flinched hearing Tommy all but yell his name.

                “I can hear you just find Tommy, lower your voice a little OK bud. What do you want?” Oliver knew he sounded like his mother when he misbehaved, but he didn’t care.

                “I want to see a movie!” Tommy whispered, confirming to Oliver that Tommy was fully in ‘unable to control my volume’ levels of drunk. At least his pants where still on (Oliver had glanced under the table to confirm this.)

                “Well that’s two votes for a movie one vote for letting Laurel use us as life sized Barbies. What say you, Bruce?”

                Bruce fiddled with his napkin for a second refusing to meet Oliver’s eyes. Oliver was vaguely concerned but knew he had to wait for Bruce to give him a reason for his discomfort.

                “Where’s the movie theater?” Bruce asked quietly. Oliver instantly knew why he was nervous. His parents had been killed out side a theater down town. Bruce probably didn’t want to risk going there again.

                “Not far from campus. There is a small theater near by that has movies until like 3 am for all the rich kids to see. Don’t worry we aren’t going to be dragging you around or something.”

                Bruce smiled, probably realizing that he was joking to make him more comfortable with the situation.

                “Ok, I think… I think a movie sounds like fun. I just hope Tommy and Laurel can behave.” Bruce looked at Tommy and Laurel with his best disappointed dad look, making the two drunk teens to straighten up and nod their heads vigorously.

                “Ok let’s go!” Oliver dropped some cash on the table for their meal, and on his body guard table for his since he was only eating there because of him and herded his friends out of the diner. This time Laurel and Tommy behaved better, and Oliver was able to sit next to Bruce. With Laurel playing with his hair the whole time. Oliver just knew before the night was done, he was going to have mini braids in his hair.

                The theater was a bit old, with a limited number of screens, and obviously catering to the teen demographic as all the movies playing where teen centric of action movies. Oliver had no desire to watch Bring it on! but was happy that the movie he did want to see had a showing at 10. It meant less time for Tommy and Laurel to wonder away and do something stupid.

                Bruce insisted on buying the tickets, stating that Oliver had paid for dinner, so he shouldn’t have to pay for everything. Oliver insisted on buy snacks, informing Bruce that Tommy was more manageable when he had something to chew on. Bruce got a little quiet again when Oliver said this and pulled him down to whisper in his ear.

                “Can you… can you not get popcorn?”

                “You don’t like popcorn?” Oliver was slightly surprised.

                “We got it that night… and I ate too much… then we left early…” Bruce looked distant and lost, making Oliver react by squeezing his shoulder to ground him. Oliver was surprised at how quickly he had begun to learn how to ground and reassure Bruce. He hoped he never over stepped his bounds.

                “No problem Brucie, no popcorn.” Oliver smiled. “How about some Raisinets? I like those.”

                “Sure, but I doubt I could eat much more.”

                Oliver shrugged and moved to the candy line, dragging Tommy along to help Sherpa the snacks.

                “We don’t need to finish it here you know, we can take them with us. We still have those cookies to snack on latter, too.”

                Bruce smiled and dragged Laurel to their theater to get their seats. The theater was packed with the kids from school who knew better than to go to Drake’s party and Oliver was hopeful that they could wind up sitting together.

                Once he had bought one of every kind of candy (with an extra box of Raisinets and Snowcaps because he discovered that the theater carried them, and he was sucker for dark chocolate), and loaded them into Tommy’s waiting arms, the two teens went to find their seats.

                Oliver was surprised to see Bruce and Laurel, sitting directly in the middle with two empty seats between them, even with the theater filling up to the brim. Bruce must have some magical teen deflecting powers to accomplish that. He took the seat next to Bruce letting Tommy sit next to Laurel and the two drunker teens start splitting the candy between them as Oliver presented the chosen treat to Bruce.

                “How did you get four seats together right in the middle?” Oliver whispered at the trailers started.

                “I put my feet on your seat and Laurel started crying when ever someone came close to Tommy’s” Bruce whispered back as he shook a candy into his hand and examined it. “Though I think once a lot of the other kids saw me, they ran to the hills. Apparently, they think I’m going to have a panic attack.”

                “Why would they think that?” Oliver was surprised and concerned about why people just pushed his friend away.

                “Because I had a panic attack when our English teacher in 7th grade put on the Mask of Zorro to talk about the American hero in literature and media.” Bruce said softly slipping the candy into his mouth and chewing methodically not looking up at Oliver or screen as he did so.

                “Was that the movie?” Oliver asked softly.

                Bruce nodded.

                “Bruce, if for any reason, any reason at all, you get uncomfortable just tug my arm, and we can get out of here. Hang out in the lobby until the movie ends at least, because I think Laurel and Tommy would cause a scene. But you never have to do anything you don’t want to or are uncomfortable with with me ok?”

                Bruce looked up, his faced shadowed in the dark of the theater but the appreciation and kindness, maybe even caring, in his eyes was clear. He nodded and moved to squeeze Oliver’s hand and didn’t let go when the movie started. Oliver felt a little fuzzy in that situation, not know if his hand was a safety blanket or if the hand holding was something else.

                Oliver didn’t care. If Bruce wanted to use him as a protective shield that was fine, he was up for the job. In fact, he demanded it. Oliver Queen, Head of the Bruce Wayne protection squad.

                The movie went ok, Oliver thought with a sigh of relief when it came to an end. The beginning had caused Bruce to tense up a bit, but most of them Bruce just lightly held his hand and watched with interest. When it came to the twist ending, Oliver could feel the gears spinning in the other boy’s head and decided to wait for the crowd to disperse before he tried to haul Laurel and Tommy (who fell asleep around the weight lifting part) out of there.

                “He made his own enemy.” Bruce finally said still seeming lost in thought.

                “He did. I guess if the world is nothing but pain for you making or finding someone to fight against would be a … reason to exist.” Oliver said in a neutral tone, not knowing where this is going.

                Bruce looked over at Oliver for a second and smiled at him softly, like he was reassuring him that he was find. He gave Oliver’s hand one last squeeze and pulled his hand back after almost 2 hours of solid contact. Oliver was disappointed at the lost.

                “I think that’s… how it always works.” Bruce explained, like he just discovered the ultimate truth to life. “Bad people make good people want to do good and good people can make bad people want to do bad. Like the people who become doctors after someone they love gets saved by one, or who become rescue workers after they witness of survive something horrible. It… sucks but I think that’s just how it works. We just have to hope that the good that’s done is at least greater than the bad.”

                Oliver smiled and patted Bruce on the shoulder.

                “Yeah… that’s why people like you and me, have to do some good in our lives.” Oliver smiled and winked at Bruce, his heart expanding in glee when Bruce didn’t blush or shrink into himself but smiled with a huge grin, too.

                “Right. Now what about those two?” Bruce asked with a wicked glint in his eyes.

                “Well its after Midnight, I think its safe to get them back to their dorms, they’ll just look like they were out past their bed time, at least I hope so.”

                “And… I’m crashing in your room?” Bruce bit his lip for a split second and moved to go gather them from their seats. Oliver was impressed to see tiny Bruce haul Laurel to her feet and ignore her whines of protest when he slung her arm over his shoulders.

                “Of course, we aren’t done yet!” Oliver stated collecting the remaining untouched candy boxes to shove into his pockets, not that there were many Tommy could eat when he was drunk and gather as much as their trash as possible while kicking Tommy in the shin to wake him up. The drunk teen grumbled but stumbled to his feet with out much more protest and happily let Oliver fill his arms with the trash.

                “Not done? What else can we do?” Bruce asked looking a little apprehensive.

                “You’ll see Brucie, don’t worry your dignity will still be intact in the morning. No fashion shows for us.”

                “But I wanna play dress up!” Laurel suddenly whined.

                “Sorry baby, its bed time.” Oliver apologized to the pouty and teary looking girl and began to lead his friends out of the mostly empty theater.

                Back in the car Tommy and Laurel feel asleep again, and even Bruce looked a bit worn as he leaned again Oliver. Oliver let him do so all the way back to the Gotham academy dorms, which at almost 1am seemed surprisingly quiet. Since Laurel was too drunk to find her key on her person, or walk without assistance, Oliver decided to carry her up to Tommy’s room. Not feeling up his friends while drunk was on Oliver’s list of rules

                Once Tommy and Laurel were tucked into Tommy’s bed and snoring away, Oliver dragged Bruce next door to his room. Bruce disappeared into the shared bathroom between Oliver and Tommy’s room with his duffle bag and Oliver took a minute to set up the TV and DVD player that his father had gotten for as some kind of apology for Moira Queen’s punishment. When he finished getting it ready to play, he looked up and was surprised to see Bruce standing there in black pajamas that he was seemingly trying to smooth into submission with some nervous twitching.

                Oliver smiled at Bruce and patted the bed, indicating that he should sit down. Bruce complied and looked like the bed was going to swallow him up. Oliver grabbed his own PJ bottoms and a worn t-shirt from some band that Tommy and Laurel had dragged him see years ago in to the bathroom. After he changed, he washed his face real fast and found himself smiling at himself in the mirror.

                Bruce Wayne was in his bed and was about to watch one of his favorite shows with him.

                Oliver tried not to skip back to the bed. He succeeded but just.

                Once he got comfortable next to Bruce on his bed and grabbed the remote as well, so he could start season 1 episode 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Oliver turned to Bruce and tried to look serious.

                “Ok Bruce, you are about to experience one of the best shows of all time. It has everything, action, suspense, romance, comedy, pretty girls and a dorky boy, everything. You will laugh, you will cry. You must understand though, that even you don’t I will. Relax, open up that bag of cookies and enjoy.”

                Bruce smiled and shoot his head at his silly friend and relaxed back into the bed to watch the show.

                9 hours later Oliver was fighting to keep his eyes open as the last episode he knew he could watch that day came to an end and Bruce cuddled into his side dead asleep. Bruce had only made it to episode 4 but Oliver couldn’t help but smile about how comfortable he seemed. Oliver was trying to decide if he should move Bruce, so he could get more comfortable, or if he should just fall asleep where he was right then when Tommy appeared in the door way to the bathroom.

                Oliver watched Tommy take in the scene and smirk knowingly at him.

                “Are you guys watching Buffy?”

                Oliver yawned and nodded.

                “Wow, you must really like him if you’re willing to expose your Willow obsession with him.”         

                “Can I help you Tommy?” Oliver sighed knowing he wasn’t going to get any sleep.

                “Laurel and I are going to go grab some coffee and some breakfast, want us to grab you something?”

                “No waffles.” Bruce groaned from his place face planting into Oliver’s chest before he rolled over and stretched like a cat.

                “Sorry we got wasted man, though I think I may still be a bit drunk to be honest. Some asshole spiked all the drinks and then it was just easier to switch to straight rum.” Tommy apologized to Bruce and Oliver with an appropriate amount of shame.

                “It ok, I don’t think I would have fun at that party anyways. It seems like nothing more than noise and people.” Bruce reassured Tommy and then blushed when he seemed to realize he was sitting there in his pajamas which where starting to crawl up his ribs.

                “Wanna go with them or make the Drunky McDrunk twins bring us food while we shower up and get dressed?” Oliver asked as he turned off the show.

                “Shower please.” Bruce smiled with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

                “You heard the man, Tommy go and fetch us breakfast and yours and Laur’s misdeeds shall be forgiven.”

                “But not forgotten.” Bruce nodded sagely.

                Oliver laughed when Tommy flipped them off and moved to leave the room and gather Laurel for the food and coffee run. Bruce looked at Oliver slightly concerned.

                “Did you sleep at all?” Bruce asked sounding concerned and examined Oliver’s face closely. Oliver just chuckled and mess up Bruce’s hair.

                “Nope, and it isn’t my first all night either. You go take your shower and I’ll cap nap a bit.” Oliver chuckled and buried down into his covers a bit. If felt like no time at all passed before a slightly dripping Bruce in clean clothed, but still all black something that amused Oliver, stood over Oliver and shook him awake. Oliver noticed the concern on Bruce’s face as he yawned and grabbed the first things his finger touched before heading to shower too.

                Finally, clean and dressed, even if a bit worn out and under slept, Oliver went to join Bruce again on his bed. Bruce had switched over to regular tv and was watching some comedy that Oliver didn’t notice where the main actors where having some kind of date night from hell. The whole thing reminded him of something Bruce had said that night. Oliver reach over and muted the tv making Bruce look at him curiously.

                “I realize I forgot something last night.” Oliver explained, moving to sit comfortably but look at Bruce while he talked. He crossed his legs and tucked his feet under each knee to try and look relaxed and confident.

                “What did you forget?” Bruce mimicked Oliver’s position, someone how looking smaller and younger when he did so, even though by now Oliver knew Bruce was actually older than him by 7 days.

                “I forgot to explain how to date.” Oliver said feeling his mouth twitch into a smirk when Bruce squirmed and refused to look him in the eyes.

                “You don’t need to, I’m sure its fine.”

                “It probably is but this is easy trust me.” Oliver leaned forward to give Bruce on his comforting knee pats and regained his wise master pose when Bruce finally looked him in the eye again.

                “Here is the secret to dating: Its not a big deal.” Bruce looked at him with disbelief, scowling and looking slight offended. Oliver just shock his head and forged on a head. “I know that seems crazy and counterproductive. The first like 5 dates aren’t a big deal, heck sometimes the first 10 dates aren’t a big deal. Everyone always acts like every date is their last chance to find true love, but that’s not true. Man, I don’t even think I believe in ‘true love’ I just believe in ‘healthy love’.”

                “If they aren’t a big deal then what are they?” Bruce asked with his curiosity and trust slowly returning. Oliver was glade that Bruce was willing to let him finish explaining this.”

                “A way to get to know one another. That’s out. Sometimes you might go on a date with someone you already know about bit or a lot and the date is just away to test if you’re comfortable with each other romantically but other than that, a date is a way you learn about another person.”

                “Then, what… what do you do?” Bruce asked looking uncomfortable and fighting a blush.

                “First you pick someone you want to see if you want to know more about, either because you find them attractive or you think they might be interested. You might ask them out or they might ask you out. Never be afraid to turn someone down if you’re not interested. It perfectly ok not share attraction with someone.”                

                “Ok… then what.”

                “Well if you plan it, keep it simple. Stuff like that” Oliver pointed at the TV which showed some hapless male character trying to put out something he set on fire and shook his head. “That makes it seem like it’s a big production but its not. Going out to eat is good, everyone eats. Movies are good but not as only thing, because you don’t really get to talk during a movie. Clubs and bars are OK if they aren’t to wild, wild ones are best for group activities. Sometimes there are events like fairs or dances and those are fun ways to get to know someone. I used to like hitting gallery openings with Tommy and Laurel, those can be fun dates.”

                “And you… just go and do stuff together.” Bruce looked like he couldn’t believe it was so easy.

                “Yeah, you do stuff together. Eventually you figure out if you want to do more, and if you want to know about ‘more’ come to me then or Alfred might be able to help a bit. Oh hell, if your still uncomfortable group dates are fun too.”

                “Group…?” Bruce looked like Oliver just told him he was a wizard and destined to conquer the moon.

                “A group date, where you and like 2-6 friends, sometimes with everyone on a date sometimes with a mix of couples and singles, go do something together. It really takes the pressure off the date and you can see how you and your partner work in a group setting, because you don’t live your life just behind closed doors.” Oliver smiled and sat back watching Bruce process everything he just said.

                “And what about after those… those 5 to 10 dates.”

                “Ahh that’s the hard part, I guess. If by that point you don’t know if you want to spend more time with the person you either need to break up with them, which most people do and can suck, or move that person to friend status if you like them but you know don’t want to like kiss them or something. Going from ‘my date’ to ‘my friend’ can be hard though so you have to actually talk to the person. If you want to date them more, eventually the dates move from ‘set’ dates to just hanging out and being together.”

                “And that’s it?” Bruce looked like he still didn’t quite believe Oliver.

                “Right now, yep. Sometimes you might wind up loosing the person in your life so that’s the one scary part, but if you approach everything as its not scary and relax dating can be fun.” Oliver smiled and lean unfurled from his position.

                “Just relax.” Bruce hummed to himself and seemed to mull that idea around. He then focused on Oliver one more time with those intense blue grey eyes. “What do you mean by ‘right now’?”

                “We are 15, we have a lot of time to grow and meet people. Eventually things like sex will be more important. Eventually we might want to settle down with people. Eventually we may find ourselves in long term relationships we don’t want to continue in. That all might happen, but right now? Right now, we can’t even drive, we can’t drink legally, if can have sex but its not everything. Right now, its ok to go slow, in the future it will still be able to go slow, it will always be ok to go as slow as you want.”

                Oliver slipped off his bed and stretched, hoping he could wake up a bit more. His limbs where beginning to feel a bit heavy for his lack of sleep.

                “So, I should just relax and date people I’m comfortable with.” Bruce asked, scooting to the edge of the bed to watch Oliver.    

                “That’s it exactly.”

                “They why do people freak out about dating!” Bruce whined, and Oliver gave in to his amusement, chuckling at Bruce’s indignation.

                “Because romantic comedies are a thing and makes people thing that life isn’t worth living if you don’t have love and lots of sex. Plenty of people live great lives without romantic love and some people don’t even want to have sex. Just say ‘pfft’ to those idea and live your life. Eventually you’ll find yourself somewhere where you’re comfortable and happy, if you actually let yourself get there.”             

                Bruce looked like he didn’t believe that last part but stopped arguing against Oliver’s lesson.

                “So, its ok if I go on a date with say Rachel Dawes and then if I decided that I didn’t want to date her again I don’t have to?”

                “You would probably want to talk to her after the date to explain that but yep that’s perfectly ok.”

                Bruce didn’t have time to ask anymore questions, right then Tommy and Laurel showed up with Styrofoam boxes of eggs and biscuits wit ham and bacon and sausage, and a tray of coffee, remembering to bring Bruce a tea instead. The four teens wound up sprawled out over Oliver’s bed with their breakfasts and watched the stupid comedy Bruce had found, Tommy and Laurel shooting down Oliver’s suggestion that they watch some of his Buffy disks.

                Laurel was trying to convince Tommy and Oliver so go shopping, her drunken desire to play dress up still driving her, while Bruce seemed to decide to egg her on, commenting about how nice Oliver would look in green and Tommy in brown when the other boys argued.

                Eventually Oliver’s exhaustion won out and he just kicked Tommy and Laurel out, knowing full well that Tommy was going to wind up with a new sweater and jeans, and a dress that lived in Laurel’s closet before the day was done. He was going to let Bruce stay, but the other boy seemed to be worried about Oliver actually getting some sleep and decided to just have Alfred come pick him up. Before he left, he hugged Oliver for the first time and told him that his night had been fun, if a bit weird.

                Oliver smiled like a dope as he fell asleep.

                Over the rest of school year from that weekend on the four teens started having weekly friend nights on Friday, where the hit a party, or saw a movie or something else silly. Every time Bruce either crashed in Oliver’s dorm room, or he wound up crashing in the manor, most often dragging Laurel and Tommy along. Before long Alfred was mothering them as much as he did Bruce. Laurel became the queen of begging cookies form the older man.

                The only time they didn’t get to hang out was during winter break where the three from California had to return to spend the holidays with their family. Oliver was cranky the whole time and spent most of his free time talking with Bruce on the phone, or emailing him, or once he talked him into downloading a messenger on his computer, messaging him. Moira was just happy that Oliver was behaving and making valuable contacts.

                Oliver and Bruce even wanted to try and spend the summer together, but Bruce wound up having to spend his summer break touring Wayne Enterprise holdings as part of an assessment of the company’s assets. Oliver didn’t understand why a barely 16-year-old boy was expected to do such a thing, but Bruce simply argued that once he was 18 he would control 79% of the shares of the company and needed to know about its inner workings.

                When they started Junior year, he and Bruce had arranged to have more classes together so that they had more opportunities to study together. However, much to Oliver’s dismay, Bruce also decided this year was the year he was going to start dating.

                Every week Bruce spent Thursday and Sunday night with a girl (sometimes the same girl a few weeks in a row, sometimes a new girl) meaning that Oliver had less nights he could hang out with his friend. Laurel and Tommy also decided to start officially dating, so more and more Oliver spent time alone. Oliver filled those nights with extra archery practice and started taking Krav Maga again.

                He still enjoyed his time with Bruce, and successful got him addicted to watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and his other secretly nerdy shows. When they spent time together during lunch it was often all they could talk about. Bruce had decided that Giles was his favorite character as the man reminded him of Alfred and he explained they had similar pasts.

                Oliver did not want to delve into what Alfred had in common with a former independent demon hunter and band member.

                Their lives kind of fell into the own kind of normal, a simple routine and simple goals. Oliver was able to keep his grades at a solid C with Bruce’s help (who turned out to actively work to keep his grades average just so people wouldn’t expect him to do better) and stay out of trouble, so even his parents could only say good things about him for once.

                In fact, the only thing that Oliver hated about his life at Gotham Academy is that even after seeing Bruce on dates with numerous girls in their class, Oliver still had a massive crush.

                It wasn’t that Oliver was waiting for him or anything. Oliver still went on his own dates, he got to know a lot of the less annoying girls in his class fairly well, and even a few of the other boys. Though to his disappoint most of the boys where either ‘Bisexual is not a thing, get your foot out of the closet’ gays or ‘I ain’t no fag I just kiss boys sometimes, shut up’ gays. They were good for a date or two, but Oliver wasn’t going to live in a closet or pretend to be something he wasn’t for someone.

                Oliver just lived his life. He didn’t think about how people saw him, as long as he had his friends, he was good. He didn’t even realize that Bruce didn’t know about him being Bi until the school year was almost over.

                They had gone to a party, Tommy and Laurel finding a corner to make out, while Bruce had brought a date and was spending most of the night with her. Oliver was feeling slightly abandoned so when he saw one of his past dates, one who kept trying to convince him that he couldn’t be Bi and should just accept his life as a gay man, he gave into temptation (and the 3 shots of vodka he had had as Alfred was picking them up later so he didn’t need to worry about his body guard ratting him out to the all powerful Mrs. Queen) and wound up making out with him in the kitchen. It hadn’t last long because someone had walked in on them, and as it was a girl Oliver had dated a few times and knew about him it quickly dissolved in to fighting when she suggested they have a threesome and the guy accused him using him.

                Not that Oliver wanted to have a threesome with them, He has just wanted to kiss someone who was willing to kiss him back for a bit.

                Oliver just wound up playing some kind of racing game with a couple of the mostly sober guys at the party until Midnight, when Alfred showed up to pick them up.

                They dropped Laurel and Tommy at their dorms, along with Bruce’s date, with Oliver sticking around to spend the night at Bruce’s place. Bruce spent the whole trip oddly quiet, with the look on his face that Oliver knew meant that he was trying to work out a problem of some kind. Oliver knew better than to push Bruce when he was like this, so he just got comfortable in his seat.

                Oliver turned down Alfred’s offer to make up a guest room for him, like always, telling him that he was going to bunk with Bruce like always. Bruce still made no sound and just walked upstairs to his room without looking back at Oliver.

                Oliver just changed into the pajamas that now shared one of the drawers in Bruce’s room while the other boy cleaned up in his bathroom and collapsed on the king-sized bed that Bruce’s room boasted in exhaustion. He was already half asleep when Bruce came back out and stared at him from the doorway. Whatever problem Bruce had been working on must have been solved or had been outlined for an experiment because his silence came to an abrupt end.

                “Ollie?” Bruce’s voice was soft and hesitant and drew Oliver a from his half sleep state to look over to him.

                “Yeah Brucie?” Oliver mumbled, his exhaustion clouding his voice as he fought the attractiveness of sleep.

                “Can I ask you a few personal questions?” Oliver was surprised that Bruce was able to climb in the bed next to him without him realizing the other boy had moved.

                “Bruce I already told you, you can ask me anything.” Oliver yawns and stretched out, tilting his body to watch Bruce.

                “Do you like girls?”

                Oliver sat up and tilted his head to the side to stare at Bruce for a second. What ever he thought Bruce was going to ask it was not that. To be honest and fair, Oliver had expected Bruce to ask him about forms of birth control.

                “Yes Bruce, I like girls. As friends and people that I occasionally kiss.” Oliver slightly winced when he heard the snark in his voice, when he didn’t want to scare or hurt his friends feeling. Luckily Bruce didn’t seem offended or taken a back from his response.

                “And do you… like boys too?” Bruce was staring at his hands and practically whispered the next questions. Oliver felt his guts twist and his heart flip and reached over to take the other boy’s hands.

                “Bruce, why are you asking these questions?” He asked softly, moving his thumb softly over the top of Bruce’s hand to let him know he wasn’t angry with the question just confused.

                “I saw you… I saw you kissing a boy tonight.” Bruce murmured still refusing to look Oliver in the face but tightening his grip on his hand.

                “Oh…” Oliver gulped and slide back a little. He didn’t think Bruce would kick him out for being Bi, but he was used to some… anger over his sexuality. His mother for one was prone to a hissy fit if he was ever seen or photographed with a boy. He had plenty of saved messages from his mother on his phone to prove that. Oliver decided it was best to just be open with his friend.

                “Yes Bruce, I like boys just as much as I like girls, and in some of the same ways. Though I’ll be honest kissing a boy is different from kissing girl.” Oliver held his breath for a second wanting to know how Bruce was going to react.

                “Is… is that a… is that a thing? Are you allowed to like boys and girls?” Bruce asked finally looking up but looking terrified of the room, the world, of everything.

                “Is it allowed? Bruce, as long as you and the person…” Oliver stopped and took a breath and sat up a bit straighter. Oliver realized after a second that the question made sense, even if it seemed a bit bizarre.

                Bruce spent most of his life pushing people away or being ignored by the people around him. The only person before Bruce who was in his life and caring about him had been Alfred. Oliver highly doubted that the over 50-year-old English butler had thought to educate his young ward about different sexualities even if he did his best to make sure that Bruce knew he was always loved and wanted.

                Bruce probably barely knew anything about the possibility of being gay never mind the possibility of being something other than gay or straight. And if you didn’t know that how you felt was valid and possible how do you express your desires?

                “Bruce… I am going to explain something to you, but before I do, I just want to ask you one question, ok?”

                Bruce nodded and continued too look like he expected his world to collapse around him.

                “Are you asking me these questions because… because sometimes you’ve been attracted to other boys?” Oliver studied the other boy as he asked the question. Bruce wiggled uncomfortably and nodded in response. He didn’t blush though, which worried Oliver. He just looked terrified.

                “Ok. Ok.” Oliver rubbed a hand over his face and sighed quietly to himself.

                “First off, let me say this: your feelings and your emotions are completely valid. Never let anyone ever tell you otherwise. Yes, it is completely possible to be attracted to and like boys as much as you like girls. Just like its possible to not be attracted to and like boys or girls at all or to be only attracted to and like one or the other. Love and attraction come in all shapes and sizes. As long as it is consensual, and you and the other person are equal participants in your relationship you and your relationship are valid.”

                Bruce stared at him wide-eyed for at least a few heart beats before a tear ran down his face cheek and sent Oliver into a mild panic. Oliver was worried that he had pushed Bruce with that little revolution. Bruce shook his head and buried his head in his hands. Oliver wanted to hug Bruce but was worried that he might react violently.

                “I’m not… wrong.” Bruce finally gasped out sounding like he was punched the gut. Oliver couldn’t hold back anymore and hugged Bruce to his chest. Bruce wrapped his arms tightly around his neck and dissolved into full blown tears, sobbing into Oliver chest.

                Bruce cried for a good while, and Oliver eventually maneuvered the two of them on to their sides so that they were laying face to face, though with Bruce still holding him tight and rocking softly with sobs. Oliver didn’t keep track of time but eventually Bruce drifted to sleep, and Oliver wasn’t far behind once he knew his friend had stopped crying.

                If not long after the two boys fell asleep the door opened to let in the steadfast but kind Alfred quietly approached the young men, huddled together on top of the covers to drape a blanket around them and to plant a soft kiss on the darker haired boy on the top of his head, no one but the man himself had to know.

                The boys slept tangled in each other’s arms until almost noon the next morning. Neither moving in their sleep except to adjust their hold on the other, waking completely entangled in the other’s limbs.

                Oliver woke first and found himself shifting so that he could watch Bruce’s face as slept calmly, the only thing to watch is his steady breathing. He absentmindedly combed his fingers through Bruce’s long hair and wondered what was going to happen next but seeing his friend at peace was always blessing.

                The calm was short lived as before long Bruce wiggled awake and blinked up at him with sleep crusted and puffy eyes. He had a look of true happiness on his face for a split second before a look of fear crushed over his face and he tried to scoot back and away from Oliver, stopped by the prison of their tangled limbs. Oliver chuckled and rubbed Bruce’s neck while he blushed, and gentle untangled his legs and arms, and clothes as some time during the night his arm wound up going up the back of Bruce’s pajama top and one of Bruce’s legs had weaseled its way in to Oliver’s sweats.

                “I’m…” Bruce gulped and moved to a sit against his head board only to curl into himself and hug his knees. His voice was barely a whisper, cracking with his previous tears and sleep. “I’m sorry.”

                “Don’t be. It is never not OK to cry.” Oliver smiled and moved to sit next to his friend. He gentle rubbed his back and frowned when instead of relaxing he tensed up.

                “I, still, I shouldn’t have... you have a boyfriend.” Bruce buried his face in his knees and shook for a second like he was going to cry again. Oliver grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into his lap and force his face up to look at him.

                “I do not have a boyfriend, Bruce.” When the other boy looked confused Oliver sighed and explained. “The boy last night? We’ve dated a few times, but he is a bit holier than though and seems to think that he can dictate other people’s sexuality for them. I was only making out with him because I was alone at the party.”

                “Oh.” Bruce frowned and leaned against Oliver’s shoulder. He sighed and just stared up at the ceiling for a minute. Oliver let him take his time to think and process his night, there was no need to push him further.

                After Oliver began to relax against Bruce, not expecting him to move anytime soon when Bruce surprised him by turning in his lap to look him in the face. Oliver looked him in the eye ready to ask him what he had decided when he was shocked to find a pair of soft hands bracketing him face and Bruce’s lips on his.

                Oliver’s world came to a crashing halt. All he could see was the kind face of his friend with his eyes closed and leaning into him, all he could feel was the soft hands on his face and the equally soft lips on his, all he could taste, smell, hear was Bruce. And he wanted to drown in that feeling.

                He wrapped one arm around Bruce’s waist and cupped the back of his hand with the other and kissed back. It was soft and long, caste with the first kiss leading to smaller shorter kisses being planted on the edges of each other’s mouth before they dip back in to kiss again with more determination. Bruce wound up tangling both his hands into Oliver’s shorted blond hair like he was scared he was going to run away any second now. Oliver couldn’t help but smile into the kiss at the feeling.

                Oliver would have been happy to stay there for much longer, to kiss and taste more of the boy, to touch and feel, to envelope himself completely in the other boy, and he would have too. That is, if the determined sound of throat being cleared hadn’t cut into the room from the door way. Both men pulled away from one another and just wound up staring with equally wide eyed and dumbstruck at Alfred standing in the door way.

                “If the young masters are done, I do believe I have allowed you convalesce long enough. Lunch is to be served shortly in the dinning room. I suspect you would both like the opportunity to clean up and change into their clothing for the day before joining me.” The man’s face was impassive but determined. Both boys knew there would be no arguing with Alfred.

                Bruce nodded frantically and slid off Oliver’s lap, all but running to slip in to the bathroom without a second look to those sitting in the room.

                Oliver gapped slightly realizing he was now alone in the room with Alfred. He gulped and slipped on the bed, ready to go and change in to fresh clothing but still being stared down by Alfred. The older man continues to look at him with an impassive but curious look for a good long minute before clearing his throat and speaking again.

                “I hope you understand and realize Master Bruce, that in the future when you spend the night in the manor you will be expected to sleep I your own room.”

                Oliver nodded frantically and blushed harder than he has ever blushed before.

                “And I believe it goes without question that if you do anything to or allowing anything to harm that boy…”

                “No one would find my body would they?” Oliver squeaked.

                “Quite right sir.” Alfred’s mouth twitched slightly in amusement and continued to stare at the boy.

                “Um… am I missing something?” Oliver blushed and rubbed the back of his head.

                “I would prefer if you would gather your clothing and change in one of the guest suites, Master Oliver.”

                “Oh… OH! Yes, yeah, I can do that.” Oliver scrambled and gathered his clothing from his drawer, without even bothering to close the drawer behind him as he ran out of the room to change in another room.

                Alfred lead him to a room down the hall and even gave him a small bow when he tripped over his feet to get in to the room and close the door as fast as possible.

                10 minutes later, after putting his pants on backwards twice, his shirt on inside out and realizing he forgot to grab his underwear and determining that he would rather go commando than risk entering Bruce’s room again before lunch, Oliver made it down to the dinning room. Only to find himself there alone and wondering if he should just run away. Those thoughts stopped when Bruce walked into the room behind him, wearing blue jeans and grey t-shirt, and stealing Oliver’s breath when he remembered how Bruce felt in his lap kissing him.

                Bruce smiled and looked around the room for second before he moved to kiss Oliver again. Oliver was disappointed that he cut it short to blush and take a seat at the table. Oliver joined him and insisted on taking his hand in his when he did so.

                “Do you want to go on a date?” Bruce blurted out after they sat in the quiet room for a few minutes.

                Oliver laughed and shock his head the absurdity of the situation. Realizing that he might be giving a bad signal to his… potential boyfriend he smiled and tightened his grip on the hands in his.

                “Of course. I thought I made that clear.” Oliver squeezed the hand in his.

                “Oh, Okay good.” Bruce stared down at the table for a second. He looked back up and smiled like a little child who just got told he was going to Disneyland. “Can I say I wanted to do that since we went to that awful first party?”

                Oliver choked on his spit for a second before collapsing into a full body laugh.

                “God, Bruce, I wanted to that the first day in the library!”

                “Are you saying I could have been kissing you instead of random girls for more than 18 months now?!” Bruce whined and looked disappointed.

                “Well you didn’t say anything and its not like I’m discreet! How was I supposed to know you didn’t know I dated other boys too?!”

                “Well you could have told me too.” Bruce pouted and gave Oliver a semi-betrayed look that was only shown to be false by the slight twitch of his lips.

                “I’m sorry, its just… always having to come out can be exhausting. When your straight, you never have to come out and say, ‘Hey by the way I’m straight, I date and love girls.’ But when your anything other than straight? Suddenly you either have to explain to everyone you meet your not straight or be accused of living in the closet, and sometimes… sometimes its just nice to not have to be a label.”

                “Has than been an issue for you?” Bruce’s face looked calm and serious, and Oliver had the sudden impression that if he gave him names Bruce would go out of his way to destroy them.

                “Not often, most people don’t really care enough for it to be an issue, if I make the Olympics, I expect the news media using it as a talking point but beyond that… beyond that the only issue I’ve face is when it comes to my mother. The fact that I have on occasion enjoyed making out with another boy has been her everlasting shame.” Oliver gave Bruce a weak smile and shrugged his shoulder. “Honestly the biggest issue I sometimes have is gay guys who seem to think that being Bi is a crime against gay kind.”

                Bruce looked serious for a second. His grip on Oliver’s hand was tightened and Oliver moved to hold that hand with his other hand as well, so he knew he was ok. Oliver wasn’t hurting, not with Bruce in his corner.

                “You don’t have to worry about me. I like you just the way you are, you don’t have to change.” Bruce finally said. “If you don’t want to be… out in the open with me I’ll understand.”

                “Bruce, that’s not what I’m saying, I’m just saying that I am more than who I love, but that doesn’t mean I want to hide it. If you tell me right now you want to neck in the hallway between classes, I’m all for it.”

                “Neck?” Bruce snickered.

                “Well if we do anything more, we might get in trouble with a teacher or Alfred might kill me and make my corpse into soup.”

                “We don’t need to neck, but holding hands is nice.”

                “Holding hands is very doable, as is cuddling and occasional kisses. In fact I completely insist on the occasional kisses.” Oliver moved in to claim on of said kisses when Alfred appeared in the room carrying a tray loaded with their lunch. Oliver was 75% certain he had been waiting in the wings for them to have their little talk and only choose to appear when he knew another make out season was imminent. Oliver couldn’t really blame him.

                As the two boys enjoyed the rest of the day, finishing their homework with Alfred seeming to hover closer than usual, while their legs and hands occasional brushed against each other and they shared dopey smiles, Oliver could only be cranky about one thing. It was April and that meant they only had a few weeks of dates and make out sessions before they wound up separated for another summer, this time with Oliver expected to completely an internship at Queen Consolidated while Bruce was taking a summer program where he was starting his own martial arts training regime.

                Their Senior year however meant the two of them where attached at the hip. Oliver was pretty sure the only ones who realized they were dating, and even claiming the term boyfriends, were Tommy and Laurel, especially with them having a few double dates and Tommy walking in on Oliver making out with Bruce on his bed, with both their shirts half off and jackets and ties lost in some cray corner of the room, more than once.

                Oliver didn’t care if every know they were dating. He was happy to have what he had with Bruce and got to watch with amusement when girls would come up to ask the other boy out, or him, and only to be politely turned down.

                Some girls seemed a bit murderous that they had lost their chances with the billionaire heirs, some just disappointed, a few others curious about why the other boy would snicker or smile when she asked. Oliver didn’t care, he had Bruce and he didn’t need anyone else.

                What Oliver didn’t notice was how Bruce began to pull away more from the world around them. Bruce started spending more time in the library during free periods and refused to talk about things like college. Oliver just assumed he was worrying about stepping up as the lead stock holder and potential CEO of a multibillion-dollar company before he even graduated and gave him his space when he seemed to need it and sat with him when he didn’t.

                Oliver had his own concerns, as he needed to focus more and more on his training in hopes of making the Olympic selection process. This meant he spent more and more time in the gym working on his arm strength, more and more time practicing his shots, and more and more time dealing with the pain and bruises that kind of thing lead to.

                He did enjoy how Bruce loved to rub down his soar muscles and bandage his bleeding fingers after his training sessions. Oliver got use to laying back into Bruce’s arms as he let him take care of him, a feat that became easier and easier as Bruce’s growth spurt hit and lead to Bruce quickly sky rocketing from his maybe 5’7” height to bordering 6’2” when there finally year drew to an end. Oliver was one of the few of his classmates who didn’t have to worry about where he was going to go school after graduation, as he had already made plans to take time off school to train for the 2004 games.

                Bruce and Oliver could only ever be alone in Oliver’s room and when they could spend time alone there, they took advantage of it. To a certain extent. Oliver was still worried about pushing Bruce to his comfort zone let alone beyond them. Even if it meant their alone time often ended with Oliver aching for more and panting as he struggled to redress any clothing that Bruce had decided were in his way.

                Until graduation came ever closer. One night when Oliver and Bruce where sitting in his room, working on their final projects and enjoying each other’s company when Bruce broke the silence with a sudden declaration.

                “I want to have sex.”

                Oliver jolted so hard in surprise from his spot he actually wound up sprawled out on the floor looking wide eyed at Bruce.

                “Right now?!” Oliver spit out as he tried to regain his composure.

                “I... Do you have… the things we would need? If we did… it now?” Bruce looked around the room like he expected to find a box labeled ‘sexy box of sex supplies’ suddenly appears under his bed.

                “I… my mom makes me keep a supply of condoms?” Oliver’s mouth out paced his brain. Eventually he did catch up and shock his head.

                “Bruce by sex what do you mean?” Oliver asked as he finally hauled himself off the floor.

                “Um… isn’t… isn’t that self-explanatory?” Bruce looked like he wanted to bolt out the room in embarrassment.

                “What I mean is… oh god… OK just… bear with me here.” Oliver took a deep breath and rubbed his face hoping slightly that he would wake up form some kind of dream and he could have this talk now. Not while he was wearing faded basketball shorts and the too tight bikini wearing girl t-shirt he stole from Laurel. And definitely not in his bedroom on a Wednesday night while his boy stared at him in fascination and discomfort.

                “Do you mean you want to experience a mutual achieved orgasm, penetration either giving or receiving, oral sex? Do you want to be fully naked, are you not comfortable with that? Do you wanna try things in steps to see what you like? Do you have an idea of what you want to do?”

                Bruce just blinked a few times and stared at Oliver like he grew an extra head.

                “Is… is just sex not an option?”

                “It depends on what you by just sex. Am I fair to assume you mean penetration?” Bruce nodded and blushed. “And… did you want to… oh god… receive or give?”

                “I… uh… assumed you would want to give…” Bruce murmured to his hands.

                “That’s not what I’m asking, Bruce, what do you want?”

                “I… don’t really know? I just assumed you would… take the lead?” Oliver shock his head and sighed.

                “Bruce… have you watched any porn?” Bruce went wide eyed and shook his head vigorously. “Read any books or erotica?” Bruce shock his head again. Oliver moaned and rubbed his face again.

                “Bruce, I know this might be something that makes you uncomfortable, but before we started dating did you… did you sleep with any of the girls you dated?”

                “I… uh… yes, when they wanted to.”

                “When they… Bruce…” Oliver groaned and really wished he wasn’t having this conversation. He moved so that he was kneeling before Bruce and grabbed his hands. “Bruce, were you having sex just to please other people?”

                Bruce didn’t say anything and avoided his gaze. That was enough of an answer for Oliver.

                “You don’t need to have sex with me to make me lie or love you Bruce. Are you saying this because you want to make me happy?”

                “No! No… I want to have sex with you Oliver, I want to. I just… don’t know what to do.” Bruce projected more confidence all of sudden, he may not know what exactly he wanted but he had an idea.

                “Ok so I’m going to be honest with you about me and my experiences and then we are going to talk about what we want to do going forward. I don’t want to have sex tonight. We shouldn’t just jump into something like this.”

                Bruce nodded, and Oliver sat back at Bruce’s feet.

                “I have had sex too, with girls and guys. Though I feel like I was more of a willing participant than you might have been which concerns me, but we’ve talked about that before, so I am going to not harp on you about the past, just remember you have to be interested in the experience and not just do what other people want to do because they want to do it. You understand that, right?” Bruce nodded, and Oliver carried on.

                “So, I have enjoyed giving and receiving. So, don’t think about doing just what I want, I like, because Bruce, if I’m with you, I’m probably going to like whatever we are doing. If you want to do other things first that’s fine. I’m find with just… getting off together.” Oliver smiled and tapped Bruce’s knee. “If its your first time, I want you to be comfortable, OK baby?”

                “I don’t know what I want to do Ollie, I just know I want to do it with you.” Bruce said finally looking relaxed and comfortable.

                “And I want to do it with you too. As long as your comfortable. With that in mind here is what I suggest.” Oliver went to his night stand and pulled about a book from the drawer. When Bruce saw the title, _The New Joy of Gay Sex_ , he blushed and grabbed the book to hold it to his chest. Oliver laughed and got up on the floor to sit on Bruce’s lap.

                “Read that, I’m going to give you some porn too. Just so you can get an idea of what could happen. Next weekend me and you? We are going to go shopping.”

                “Shopping?” Bruce whimpered. Ollie laughed and kissed his boyfriend, happy that he seemed to relax and sigh.

                “Yes, I have condoms, but I’m out of lube or anything for aftercare. Also, you could get a toy or two, if you want to play around to see what you like.” Bruce looked horrified at that last suggestion, so Oliver laughed again and winked at Bruce. “Don’t look so scandalized, I even have a toy or two, I just haven’t used them in a while.”

                “Can I see them?” Bruce’s face dissolved from horror to fascination, looking like he wanted to explore every corner of the room to learn more about his boyfriend.

                “Next time, no need to go crazy right away. Bruce, I’m not saying no, I’m saying I love you, so I don’t want to scare or hurt you in anyway.”

                Bruce smiled and nuzzled Oliver’s neck.

                “That’s the first time you said that you know.” He murmured against his collar bone.

                “Oh… Uh…Is that ok?” Oliver was suddenly nervous.

                “I love you too, Oliver.”

                Oliver just leaned in to kiss Bruce again, quickly moving them into a heated make out session that they were more comfortable with.

                Oliver was insistent that they take it slow, and Bruce complied. Though Oliver was sure it was because the day after Bruce watched his first porno video Bruce couldn’t look anyone in the eye and he had the impression that Alfred may have… had a bit of an eyeful. However, Bruce read the book Oliver gave, and watched few videos, and even handled a trip to a sex store.

                Bruce’s face upon seeing a display of vibrators will keep Oliver laughing for the rest of his life.

                When they finally got physical, after deciding to go slow and try things in stages, neither boy was disappointed. Tommy was a little traumatize, having never learned to knock before entering and walked in on them in a compromising position. He had screeched in horror, ran away, and left the two boys to giggle for a good 5 minutes before continuing where they left off.

                Tommy couldn’t look at either boy without blushing for the next 2 weeks and Laurel just laughed her ass off when ever he got too flustered.

                The didn’t have must time left before they graduated. Before long, it was May, Bruce was spending more time in Oliver’s room, but due to the fact that Oliver was objectively terrified of Alfred there were no over nights for the two that didn’t involve Oliver in another room on the other side of the manor. Oliver wasn’t concerned, thinking they would have plenty of time together if Oliver and Bruce lived together after school (an option Oliver was currently bringing up more and more in hopes to discuss it), but Bruce seemed annoyed by the fact their encounters always had to be short and planned out.

                Oliver figured out the best option for them to finally be able to be together the way they wanted.

                Oliver arranged from them to spend the night in a hotel room the night they graduated.

                The one thing he figured he had to do was talk to Alfred about him and Bruce. That fact was enough to make Oliver whimper like he was being beaten.

                A week before they graduated Oliver bit the bullet.

                He skipped his training session, knowing that Bruce was occupied with his own plans, and went to the Manor, alone, for the first time ever. He made sure his clothes where pressed and in their proper place, looking more put together than he had looked outside an event planned by his mother. He even polished his shoes the night before and dealt with funny looks all day from his friends because of that fact.

                Still he almost bolted when he rang the doorbell at the Manor.

                He didn’t have a chance, as Alfred opened the door almost instantly, making Oliver feel like he was waiting for him, expecting him, prepared for him at all times.

                “Master Oliver, this is a pleasant surprise. What do I owe the honor, sir?” The proper British man ushered the younger man in with a knowing smile.

                “I wanted to talk about something with you. About me and Bruce.”

                “Very well, would you join me for some tea, Master Oliver?”

                Oliver nodded and followed Alfred to the now familiar study, where Oliver was left to sit nervously alone while Alfred left to get the tea. Oliver was a full nervous wreck by the time Alfred return with a full tray of tea and cookies. He waited as patiently as he could while the older man prepared two cups of tea and arranged cookies on a small plate for Oliver. Oliver found himself cradling the warm cup while Alfred watched him for a few minutes in silent.

                “Well, I believe you wanted to talk to me about your relationship with Master Bruce?” Alfred finally broke the silence and took a sip of his tea while waiting for Oliver’s response. Oliver took a few deep breaths to steel himself.

                “You know we’ve been seeing each other romantically.” Oliver started only to startled from his prepared speech by the older man chuckling.

                “Young man I’m well aware that you two have gone past just romantics and into a relationship of a sexual nature, I believe we can bypass some of the slower building elements. You young men may be young, but you are 18 now and are adults. I’m sure you’re not just here to come out to me or tell me about your relationship.”

                “You’re right.” Oliver sighed and put down his tea.

                “I am in love with Bruce, Alfred. I believe he loves me too.” Oliver clasped his hands into his lap and tried to sit up as straight as possible. “Moving forward I want us to continue to see each other.”

                “That seems wise, as you both seem happier together than apart. I do live with my young master when you are separated during the holidays after all.” Alfred moved to mimic Oliver’s pose. “I suppose, from here, we simply need to discuss what you mean by ‘continue to see each other’ don’t we.”

                “I want to ask him to live with me. I don’t know if that would mean moving here, or him moving to Starling to live there, at least until after the Olympics, if we would live near where ever he decided to go to school, he won’t tell me where he was planning on going actually.”

                “Master Bruce has decided to delay his degree while he takes time to develop a better understanding of his company.”

                “Right so that would probably mean here.”

                “Most likely sir.”

                “I know you are always going to be in his life, Alfred. He told me that he reinstated your work contract when he turned 18 so that even if you could no longer work you would always have a home with him.” Oliver sighed and took a sip of his tea before he plowed on. “I want to know if you are really alright with our relationship.”

                Alfred blinked and seemed stunned for the first time since Oliver knew him.

                “Young man, there are many things in the live I can not speak for. I do not know how the Wayne’s would react to anything about Bruce’s life, to you two, to anything. Nor do I know how your family has reacted to your relationship, however based on this conversation I can guess. I hope you understand there is nothing that boy does that I would ever be truly disappointed by. Nor is there anything you could do either.”

                Oliver felt his eyes sting and looked down at his hands in his lap.

                “Good, good.” Oliver smiled and dragged his eyes up. “I hope you understand if we live together, I’ll be sharing Bruce’s bed with him. Every night possible.”

                “I believe I can live with that.” Alfred collected his tea again, but paused to smirk at Oliver. “Though I do request that the young sirs take heart about an old man’s sensibilities and lock the door whenever more adult activities are being engaged. I have seen more than enough of Bruce engaging in them for a life time.”

                Oliver just laughed.

                “Alfred, I would insist on it myself.”

                “Very good. I take it you will be, for lack of better word, proposing this arrangement soon?”

                “On graduation night, I am getting a hotel room for us to spend the night in, and I plan on asking him then.”

                “Perfect sir, that shall give me plenty of time to prepare the master suite for you both, as it is time Master Bruce took his place as the true head of the family.”

                Oliver nodded and stopped for a minute thinking about what Alfred said.

                “Alfred, I… I just want you to know… I don’t know where we are heading. We are young after all and I’m Bruce’s… first. But… I want to stick around as much as possible, and I don’t know… I don’t know if that will mean children Alfred. I would like that I think but… adoption isn’t always easy.”

                “Whatever happens, Master Oliver, I will never be disappointed.”

                “Thank you. I should go before Bruce gets home.”

                “Allow me to box up some of these cookies then sir, growing boys need to eat after all.” Alfred’s eyes twinkled as he swiftly swept the tea away to return with a box of cookies, which seemed like it had been prepackaged before Oliver got there. He decided not to think about it too much.

                Alfred Pennyworth was the single most terrifying man Oliver Queen had ever meet.

                Oliver’s plans for Graduation where easily set in stone, and he even had time to explain Tommy his plans for his future with Bruce. His oldest friend was understanding, only asking that Oliver continue to keep his doors locked when ever Tommy came to visit, stating ‘I’ve seen your naked ass more than enough times in my life time’.

                Bruce continued to be a little antsy as the big day drew closer. Oliver just assumed that his boyfriend was worried about the direct their relationship was going in. He hoped the graduation night would be enough to prove that Oliver was all in.

                After the ceremony Bruce was oddly quiet, a bit withdrawn. Oliver hoped when he asked his questions that Bruce would open up like he usually did when they spent time together.

                Bruce seemed surprised that after the ceremony Oliver separated him from the crowd. Oliver explained as he got him to the care that he made arrangements to have lunch with his parents the next day, they hadn’t been able to make the ceremony at all, and that Alfred had already known they weren’t going to the manor that night. Bruce stayed quiet, contemplative, through the whole drive only to look wide eyed when they pulled up to the front of the hotel and Oliver pulled two sneakily packed over night bags from the trunk.

                Bruce didn’t say a word when Oliver checked them in, or when he led them to their room. When Oliver tried to open the door Bruce stopped him, wrapping his arms around the other boy and tucking his head under his chin.

                “You didn’t need to do this Ollie.” Bruce whispered.

                “I wanted to do this. I want to fall asleep with you in my arms and know I can wake up with you there.” Oliver whispered back, kissing the top of the other boy’s head.

                “Ollie…” Bruce grabbed the side of Oliver’s face to kiss him. Oliver noticed the other boy sounded like he was about to cry.

                “Hey, hey, baby, its ok. If you don’t want to do this, its ok.” Oliver began to pull away, ready to lead Bruce out of there, to take him back to the Manor.

                “Its not that. I… can I… can we just be with each other, not worry about anything but each other for a while?” Bruce asked, wrapping his arm Oliver’s neck.

                “Of course, babe, of course. We can talk in the morning. Tonight, can be just us.”

                Oliver pulled Bruce into the room and they two quickly became a mass of kissing and hands, falling to the bed to wrap themselves in each other. After they had explored and enjoyed each other to their fill the two feel asleep for the first time in each other’s arms.

                In the morning Oliver woke up happiest he had ever been. The sun was warm against his skin and he stretched to feel it, moving his arm up to feel for Bruce. Oliver’s hand came up empty.

                Oliver sat up and yawned looking around the room. His over night bag was still sitting on top of the dresser where he threw it the night before. Bruce’s was no where to be seen. With a smile Oliver slid out of bed to go knock on the bathroom door, thinking Bruce was in there changing.

                “Bruce, you decent? Or not? I’m cool with either option.”

                Oliver received no response. He arched his eye brow in concern and tried the knob. The door opened easily, and the bathroom was dark and empty.

                Oliver looked around the room, looking for some sign about were Bruce could have gone. On top of the dresser next to his over night bag was a folded piece of paper. Oliver grabbed it still confused by what was happening. Reading the note, Oliver slowly began to feel his body go numb and his head pound.

“Dear Ollie,

                I’m sorry, I need you to understand that isn’t about you and me. This has nothing to do about you.

                Ever sense my parents died, I have been consumed by the need to make Gotham better, safer. I never want a child to live through what I have.

                I need you to understand. I was planning this before I even meet you. I have to do this, I have to protect my home. I just have to do it alone.

                I want nothing more than to spend my life with you, I love you. I didn’t even know if I was ever going to be able to love until I meet you.

                I don’t deserve you.

                Please, live a good life.

Bruce Wayne.”

                Oliver let the note fall to the ground while he felt his world spin around him. After a minute Oliver stumbled to pull out his phone from the abandoned jeans near the bed. Without looking Oliver pressed a number on his speed dial that he never had the need to use before now.

                “Pennyworth.” Hearing the calm British voice on the other end of the line made the first sob escape Oliver’s chest and had him wiping away his tears.

                “Alfred.” Oliver was surprised at how devastated he sounded.

                “Master Oliver? Is something wrong, sir?” Alfred still sounded calm, but Oliver could detect the sound of panic in his voice.

                “Is… is Bruce with you?”

                There was a long pause on the other end of line.

                “I haven’t seen Master Bruce since before the ceremony. I assumed he was with you.” The concern was now palpable in the other man’s voice.

                “He was, he… I think he… I think he ran away. He left a note.” Oliver let the tears over come him. “He left me Alfred.”

                Oliver couldn’t even register anything else. He just knew that somehow, he got dress, somehow, he answered the door, and the next thing he knew he was crying in Alfred’s arms. The older man took charge, examining the note and pocketing it, gathering Oliver’s things, throwing a few condom wrappers into the trash even, and leading Oliver to a waiting car. Oliver didn’t even think about calling his bodyguard.

                Alfred reassured Oliver that he wasn’t was fault, that Alfred was going to do his best to hunt down Bruce. That Bruce would come home.

                Oliver didn’t feel a thing. He couldn’t feel a thing

                He had let himself feel so much for so long, and now the person that had made him feel happy and loved was gone and he felt lost.

                He didn’t know if he could be found any more than Bruce would be.


	2. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize to Tim Cuddihy, the man who actually won the 2004 Bronze Medal for the men's individual archery competition. Maybe in this world he doesn't exist?

                Five years and six months after Bruce Wayne disappeared the new was a buzz.

                Missing billionaire Bruce Wayne had been found, in the outskirts of China, covered in scars and bruises, in old worn out clothing and no shoes. The media cycle went insane, images of the wild looking man rotated though newspapers and magazines.

                The first person to see and confirm the identity of Bruce Wayne was his long-term guardian and butler Alfred Pennyworth. When they where alone in for the same time Bruce hugged the old man and apologized for leaving without a word. And then he told him his plan form here on out.

                Bruce had planned his journey well.

                Before he left, disappeared Alfred insisted they call it, he had given Alfred Pennyworth power of attorney over his assets, trusting the man to take care of the Manor and Wayne enterprises in his absences. Everything was ready for him to slide back into his life and begin his mission.

                Everything except…

                Bruce knew better than to ask Alfred about Oliver.

                He hadn’t completely lived in the dark to the world around him. He knew a man, an alien actually, had revealed himself and began working to protect the world. He knew Oliver won a bronze medal in the Olympics, he had even seen it him happen in person, if out of sight of Oliver.

                He knew that Oliver had gotten married.

                Bruce knew it had been too much to hope that Oliver would be waiting for him to come back to finish his training. But he had. He couldn’t help himself. He had wanted Oliver to be there for him.

                When Bruce finally set foot back in Gotham all the weight of his travels disappeared.

                Bruce was home. Bruce was where he needed to be. Bruce was where he belonged.

                He let Alfred groom him, so he now looked like the pillar of industry that would make Thomas Wayne proud. He even let Alfred arrange interviews, coming up with a story about him traveling the world to find himself and being held captive for a time.

                Bruce supposed being trained for 2 years in an isolated temple by assassins who worked to control the worlds events and a strict ideology, lead by a demented and controlling man, was kind of like being captive. He was lucky to have been able to leave.

                He had been home two weeks, asleep in the master suite after a long night of planning and designing his suit and base of operations, when he woke up with a small blonde child in his bed.

                Bruce found himself sitting up and opening staring, struggling to process what he was seeing.

                There was a blonde girl, maybe a year and half old, in his bed. Staring at him with curiosity and as much interest as an 18-month-old probably could.

                Bruce was about to call Alfred, or grab the child, or just run away from what ever was happening when the door to the master suite opened and his breath was taken away. Oliver Queen was in his room, he was there, and he had a tray in his hand.

                Bruce almost didn’t even see Alfred behind with an identical tray he was so focused on the man he loved in his room.

                Bruce was aware he looked different. He finished his growth spurt as he traveled the world and now topped out at 6’2”. He had put on enough muscle mass that the skinny small boy he once was was a distance memory.

                Oliver looked better to him. Tan skin, longest blonde hair that made him look reckless and young, the same devil may care smile, and a bit wider in the shoulders than he was as an 18-year-old. He looked so good, at least to Bruce, that Bruce almost scrambled out of bed to embrace him.

                What stopped him was the child cooing ‘Dada’ and making grabby hands at the blonde man, whose smile widened, and eyes twinkled with happiness that Bruce never thought he would get to see again. Then it clicked for him. The child was Oliver Queen’s daughter.

                “Oliver.” Bruce finally said when the other man sat on the bed and arranged the child to sit in his lap without knocking over the tray. Alfred placed the other tray over Bruce’s lap and gave him a stern look. Bruce didn’t need words to know he was expected to apologize for leaving like he did.

                Bruce expected that it made sense. It didn’t stop his heart from breaking watching Oliver holding the small girl in his lap and feeding her bites of his waffle.

                “Hello Bruce. I see you’re alive. You didn’t call or write though so I had to be told that by a pretty brunette on the evening news.” Oliver finally spoke, looking at Bruce with expected but still hurtful coldness once Alfred left the room.

                “I thought I made it clear in my note…” Bruce started only to be cut off.

                “You had to. You had to leave. You couldn’t talk to me about it or anything else, just had to leave me alone in bed, making me feel cheap and everything.” Oliver took a bite of his egg and quirked his eyes brows up. “You don’t actually think you can talk yourself out of disappearing into the night for five years, do you?”

                “No. I don’t deserve that.” Bruce said honestly and moved to take a bite of his meal. They ate in silence for a bit, the child in Oliver’s lap humming and cooing as he feed her bits of his breakfast and Bruce trying to decide his next course of action.

                “You got married.” Bruce had decided it wasn’t worth sugarcoating or delaying the inevitable.

                Oliver snorted and rolled his eyes.

                “Yeah, I guess you can say that.”

                “You guess?” Bruce was surprised and only his training kept it off his face.

                “Oh right, you disappear from the world, you miss out on some important events.” Oliver put his knife and fork down and finally gave his full attention to Bruce.

                “Are you aware that Tommy and Laurel got married 2 years ago?”

                Bruce nodded and pushed his unappetizing breakfast away.

                “Well after they got engaged and decided on a date, both realized that any solo bachelor or bachelorette party would result in shenanigans. Especially after I told them I was planning shenanigans for both events. In the end they decided on a mixed gender Vegas weekend two weeks before the big day, with the hopes that with enough distance and accountability among guests that we would behave.”                                                                           

                Oliver chuckles and pushed his hair from his eyes and resettled the baby on his lap.

                “They thought wrong, didn’t they?” Bruce asked, relaxing a little to listen to stories about the friends he missed so much. He could admit it, even if it was just to himself, he wishes he could have experienced them himself.

                “They did not, me and Sara, you remember Laurel’s sister? Well Sara and I, we decided they couldn’t get away without some crazy. Cue us hiring dancer for private shows in our suites and too much alcohol, and lots of gambling. After we tormented Tommy with male strippers, in addition to the female one we hired, and Laurel with a pair strippers Sara picked to look like me and Tommy, Sara and I wound up celebrating with a couple of bottles of vodka and a trip to all night all girls strip club.”

                Oliver sighed and smirked.

                “Next thing we both know, we are waking up in my room, naked with cheap rings and a marriage certificate.”

                “Wait… you got… you got ‘drunk in Vegas’ married? To Laurel’s sister.”

                “And immediately made the effort to ignore it. We hide the rings and went home without talking about it.”

                “I don’t believe it was successful, Ollie.”

                Bruce immediate regretted using the nickname when a shadow crossed the other man’s face. Oliver shook it off and moved on to finish his story.

                “Yeah well, there was still a wedding where we were the Best Man and Maid of Honor, and expected to sit next together, stand next to each other and just be in each other’s general space for a whole day. We should have been adults, talked about how stupid we were and make plans to get it annulled. What we did was get just drunk enough to say ‘fuck it’ and wind up in bed again. Then the next day I was on a plane to Africa.”

                “Africa?” Bruce was now confused.

                “After the Olympics I started working with some charities, mostly overseas, were I helped with building and maintaining clinics and schools in area of need and help with refugee programs. I was helping set up a new clinic in a small area in the outskirts of Kenya. I was there for 6 weeks, without much talking to Sara at all though she did try to get in touch with me near the last week before things went insane. Then I was kidnapped.”

                “Kidnapped!” Bruce stiffened and had to resist the urge to run to save Oliver in the past, which he knew it wasn’t possible or smart.

                “Kidnapped. There was some warlord who decided he wanted all the equipment and supplies we were using at the clinic and figured some white liberal American’s were worth quite a bit for him and his efforts. He luckily didn’t realize I was Oliver Queen and just ransomed us the U.N. peace keeping efforts in the area. But we were still held for more than 2 months.”

                “And were… you ok? You weren’t hurt were you?”

                Oliver lift his shirt and revealed a few scars on his abdomen.

                “I was hurt, they liked beating the guys to ensure dominance, and they didn’t exactly like feeding us a great amount of food. By the time we got rescued I lost about 30 pounds and wound up in surgery before I even made it home to remove some foreign objects that were left in the wounds. That’s all in the past now though. I was talking about my not so normal marriage.”

                Oliver replaced his shirt and sighed.

                “When I got back, I decided to talk Sara finally about us, and maybe file for divorce. Then Sara dropped a bomb: she was almost 4 months pregnant. Pregnant with what was clearly my child. Neither of us wanted to be married to the other, that was something we both could agree on, but neither of us knew what we wanted to do about it.”

                Oliver smiled again Bruce, more chagrined than before, and shrugged.

                “Sara didn’t know if she could stand not having a part in her child’s life, and I wanted to be a parent. We didn’t have any other people in our lives. Thus, we made an… arrangement. We would stay married and raise Thea together until something changed. We wrote up a post-nup so that if we get a divorce there should be no big fight. Sara has realized being a mom isn’t for her, so I’m practically a single parent any way and I haven’t been in the same room for 6 months.”

                “Huh.” Bruce didn’t know if he understood exactly what had happened. “What does that mean?”

                “It means my mom got to have her ‘hallelujah my son isn’t a fag’ moment, the Lance’s have no idea what to make of us, and I still date casually, without allowing much pressure to be serious. If it gets serious, I always have the option to get divorced and pursue it.”

                Bruce poked at the food in front of him again. He needed to ask Oliver some important things.

                “Oliver why are you here?”

                “My friend who disappeared for more than 5 years just came back. I missed him and wanted to see him.”

                “Are we still friends? After everything?”

                “Bruce, if takes more than being an asshole to stop being someone one friend.”

                “And… us?”

                Oliver picked up the child from his lap and gentle placed her on the ground. He then moved to sit in front of Bruce and looked him in the eyes. Bruce swallowed nervously when he locked his gaze with the rich cornflower blue eyes of the man he still loved.

                “I do not forgive you Bruce.”

                “I-“

                “No, let me finish. I do not forgive you. You acted like a coward, you hurt me, you hurt Alfred, you left us in pain from your actions. I can not just forgive any of that.”

                Oliver reached out and grabbed Bruce’s hand.

                “I will be your friend though. I will be in your life. I will allow you to try and earn my forgiveness. But do not expect anything more than some time with me and Thea.”

                “Thea?”

                “My daughter.”

                “Oh.” Bruce shifted a little to lean in a bit closer to Oliver.

                “I still love you Oliver, I never stopped. Every moment I was gone I wished I was with you.”           

                “I love you too Bruce. Love isn’t the problem. Its trust.”

                “You will give me a time to regain that trust?”

                “I will.”

                Bruce grabbed Oliver’s hand and gently kissed the edge of Oliver’s mouth briefly and sweetly, not pushing for anything just showing him that he understood.

                “I won’t push you Oliver. Just… thank you for the chance.”

                “I have a meeting for my charity.” Oliver pulled away and moved to collect the trays form the bed, the mostly abandoned breakfasts looking a bit sad and congealed.

                “Can we… sometime…”

                “Dinner tomorrow. I pick the place. Alfred has already agreed to babysit.”

                “Oh, okay.” Bruce finally climb out of his bed. Oliver ignored him and simply left to most likely return the uneaten food to Alfred. Bruce found himself crouched down besides the child looking her over fully.

                He found himself holding the child in his arms while she happily explored his face. Every inch of her face and smile screamed Oliver and Bruce found his heart constricting in love for the small child.

                “Did your talk go well Master Bruce?” Alfred’s stealth skills were still top notch, startling the now trained assassin from his reflection on the child in his arms.

                “I was more of a lecture, Alfred.”

                “I’m sure you deserved it, Sir.”

                “I’m sure your right.”

                “Are you going to be illuminating Master Oliver of your plans form here on out?”

                “Not just yet Alfred.”

                “And may I ask why the bloody hell not?” Bruce was a little taken back by the anger Alfred displayed.

                “We are learning to trust each other again. I don’t know if I trust him with my plans for Gotham and more than he knows he can trust me with his heart. I will tell him. When it’s time.”

                “Very well. I will be waiting in the cave with the plans for construction when you’re ready.”

                “Are the suit plans finished?”

                “The program finished rendering last night, so you can look them over when you’re ready. I do wish to remind you there is a board meeting at Wayne Enterprises this afternoon, you are expected to attend as a majority shareholder.”

                “Thank you, Alfred.” Bruce looked down at the child in his arms and smiled. He had a long road to go, but for Gotham and Oliver Queen he would do it. He had to do it.

                Bruce also wanted to look in to Oliver’s charity and see about adding it to the list of beneficiaries of the Thomas Wayne foundation. Bruce supposed his life was going to become more complicated than even he expected.

**Author's Note:**

> there is going to be an epilogue chapter because I can't end on a sad note.


End file.
